Something Totally Random
by Major Trouble
Summary: The name is, well, random. Sequel to 'Currently Unnamed'. A 'routine' mission Root labels as a crisis. Why? They only have to bring some goblins back to the Lower Elements. Plus, what in Frond's name is a Mud Men Sports Week?
1. Another Crisis

**A/N: This is the sequel to _Currently Unnamed. _DO NOT read this story if you haven't read that.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any characters.**

Trouble awoke with the sun in his eyes- artificial sun, that is. But he hadn't just woken up. His phone was ringing.

Trouble groaned and got out of bed, going into the kitchen to get the phone.

"Hullo?" he mumbled.

"Trouble, son, wake up. Now," Julius Root sounded urgent.

"Dad…. Dad, why're you calling me at… eight in the morning." He was so tired, it didn't even sound like a question.

"Because we need you and Holly down here. Now. We have another emergency. I'm sorry," Root apologized.

"What is it this time?" Trouble asked.

"I'll tell you when you get here. You've got 15 minutes, starting… now." Root cut the connection.

"D'Arvit," Trouble muttered as he hung up.

Then he raced back to his bedroom where Holly was sitting on his bed, waiting for him waiting for him with a questioning look.

"Another crisis, or so I'm told. Get dressed," he commanded, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"D'Arvit," Holly swore, collapsing back on the bed. Trouble checked his monometer, pulling on his green LEP suit. His (black) Retrieval suit was in his cubicle at work. They had 12 minutes.

Holly got dressed and the two ran out the door, through the small, cluttered, and generally messy apartment, down the stairs, out the front door of the building, and into the crowded streets. They got plenty of stares, for they had pretty much rolled out of bed, yanked uniforms on, and left. They hadn't even eaten, let alone brushed their teeth or showered.

30 seconds from the deadline, two bed-headed elfin captains stood, gasping for breath, outside Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Commander Julius Root's office. Before either of them could knock, the aforementioned elf with a very long title more or less pulled them by their collars into his office.

"We've got a group of goblins," Root informed them, "armed to the teeth with softnose lasers and batteries. Literally. Caught one this morning at three o'clock with batteries in his mouth, wired to his teeth. He was a low-ranked guy, though. Couldn't have told us nothing if he'd want to. Which he very well didn't."

The younger elves didn't point out the double negative.

"So what's our job?" Holly questioned.

"Track down these goblins. They managed- all nine of their leaders- to escape to the surface. Retrieval is going, too. Only an idiot would put only two officers, even his very best, out after nine of any creature. Holly, eh, Captain Short, get someone to give you a Retrieval jumpsuit. Tr- Captain Kelp, Grub's staying behind. Maybe his suit will fit you, Short?"

"No offense, to him, or you, but he's way to fat. Holly's much, much skinnier, and would be swimming in Grub's suit," Trouble interjected.

"Fine, just, get her a goddamn suit! Get Foaly to outfit the lot of you with Hummingbirds, moonbelts, lots of cam-foil, and Neutrinos. I want you to find the goblins, knock 'em out, tag 'em, bring 'em back. Routine stuff. Go."

Holly asked Trouble as they walked out, "How is it that we're here if this is 'routine'?"

"Maybe there's something he didn't want to tell us. I doubt he forgot, though. Probably won't tell us 'til it's to late," Trouble mused.


	2. 89 Percent

**A/N: As I'm sure you've noticed, this story might not get updated much. Writer's block, I guess. But I'll do my best.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Unknown and Pop-Tart. I was eating Pop-Tarts when I named him :) Eoin Colfer owns the rest.**

The shuttle ride to the surface was uneventful. They had managed to get a Retrieval suit for Holly from Foaly, and Holly then flew the ship up to the surface.

At E1: Tara, LEPretrieval One got out of the shuttle and shielded and separated into four groups of three to corner the goblins. One had been tagged with a seeker-sleeper on a previous occasion, so the gang was easy enough to find without Foaly's help.

About half an hour after reaching the surface, Unknown, flying with Trouble and Holly on his own wings, had spotted the goblins. Everyone flew down, silently surrounding them. Holly warned the group when she noticed they all had softnoses, just as the commander had said.

Just as silently as they had surrounded them, Retrieval took the runaways out. The goblins had no clue. Not unusual, actually.

Once sure they were all down, everyone quickly covered the eight goblins with cam-foil and clipped them to moonbelts. Holly, Unknown, Trouble, and an elf nicknamed Pop-Tart (due to his love of the Mud Man food) didn't have to carry any prisoners. Instead, they had to carry six softnoses each, and two goblins-worth of batteries. That's a hell of a lot of batteries. Additionally there were eight pairs of goblins wings, five LEP helmets, and three moonbelts. All stolen.

Back in the shuttle after a couple of _hours_ of lugging around unconscious goblins and equipment, Holly looked at Trouble.

"Trub?"

Trouble looked up, startled. He had been deep in thought about the past week.

"Yeah, Holls?" he asked.

"Does it feel to you like something's not quite right? This mission seems to have gone too well," Holly reflected.

"We got all eight goblins Hol-"

He was cut off by a sharp intake of breath from the pilot's seat. Holly jumped up and went back into the passenger/prisoner area of the shuttle (she didn't have to worry about flying, they hadn't left yet, and Trouble could fly, anyway). She quickly counted the goblins once, twice, eight times total, which was the same number she got, every time. But Root had said _nine_.

"D'Arvit!" swore Holly loudly. Retrieval looked at her.

"Root told us there were nine goblins," she explained. "We only have eight."

"One prolly got scorched by a flare on the way up, er sumtin. No biggie," one elf said.

"Oh yeah? And what if he didn't?" Holly challenged.

"Is one lousy gob. Chances he's on the surface ain't good."

"Neither is your grammar," Holly muttered, but he didn't hear her.

* * *

The goblin in question was, in fact, not a goblin. Someone very clever was on the surface, and they watched every move LEPretrieval One made. It was almost time to make their own.

* * *

Root sat at his desk in Police Plaza, staring up at the ceiling. Unknown had just told him Retrieval had eight of the goblins, but couldn't find the ninth. Root sighed as he picked up a digi-pen and was about to fill out some e-forms when he was interrupted by a knock on his office door.

* * *

Grub Kelp leaned back in his comfortable desk chair after gently laying down his own digi-pen, and sighed. He'd finished filling out _his_ e-forms. Grub looked around him at the walls of his cubicle. Mostly there were pictures of Trouble and some other co-workers, with a few of mommy thrown in. There were, however, two plaques. One read:

'Corporal Grub Kelp

The Only Officer

Not To Fall Asleep

Filling Out E-Forms'

The other:

'Corporal Grub Kelp

The Only Officer

Left Standing When Butler

Attacked LEPretrieval One

During The Fowl Manor Siege'

Grub had figured out he'd gotten both because Root felt bad for him, but he didn't much care, especially now he knew Root was his dad. The plaques were so shiny! Root was such a good daddy, and now, Grub could complain to him if Trouble was bad! And he could punish him well, too.

Corporal Kelp sighed again and stood up from his chair.

* * *

"What is it this time?" Root barked though the door. His visitor, a young elf, came in. Root groaned inwardly. That stupid corporal.

* * *

The fairy left the tree he was hiding in, near where the goblins were captured, and followed Retrieval, staying shielded among the goblins. They started to fight about where the ninth goblin was. He snickered.

Right before they were about to leave to bring the eight goblins back to the Lower Elements, then send up a smaller team in search of the last goblin, the ninth slipped under a sheet of cam-foil and turned his shield off. Now to wait.

* * *

Holly flew the shuttle for a bit, then put it on autopilot and grabbed Trouble's wrist. She tanked him out of the co-pilot's chair and into the passenger area.

"Everyone listen up!" she hollered, and the two fairies shut up fast. You don't mess with Captain Holly Short. "Trouble, Unknown, Pop-Tart, and I will go back to the surface to find the last guy once these idiots-" she waved her had at the caged goblins, "-are taken care of. Someone tagged them, right?"

"Yup, I got 'em, Captain Short," Pop-Tart answered.

"Good. Let's get these guys back."

She turned on her heel, dragging her co-pilot back into the cockpit.


	3. Tree's Back, But Turnball's Not

**A/N: IMPORTANT!! The time jumps around quite a bit, make sure you take note of the times. AM for the fairies is the same as PM for humans. Ex: 12 AM (Midnight) for us is 12 PM (Noon) for fairies.**

**Also, if you read, _please_ review! I have around _7 or 8_ _hundred _hits (not counting the first chapter, which comes up everytime comeone clickes the name) on 'Currently Unnamed,' and only _11_ reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I only own Unknown and Pop-Tart. Eoin Colfer owns the rest.**

**3:00 AM**

**Root's Office**

"Grub Kelp is missing, sir. And his brother just went back to the surface with Holly, Unknown, and Pop-Tart," the elf panted.

_Stupid Corporal_, Root thought again. _Doesn't call his superior officers by title, but by first name, and doesn't even _try _to make himself look presentable for his commander._

As though reading his mind, the Corporal straightened up and fixed his LEP suit so it wasn't _quite _as full of wrinkles.

Aloud, Root said, "When's the last time anyone saw him?"

"One hour ago."

Root looked at the moonometer on his computer screen. "Grub's shift _ended _an hour ago."

"But he _always _stays late, Commander, sir!" the Corporal protested.

Root sighed, knowing he was right. Grub always stayed at least an hour and a half late, or until Trouble got back, if he was on a mission. Whichever came last. So he should still be at work. Root opened a link to the Ops Booth, where Foaly was gleefully munching a carrot.

"Corporal, leave," Root commanded the young elf still standing just inside the door. He went back to his cubicle. To Foaly Root said, "Check the security cameras- all of them- for Grub. When's the last time he was seen?"

Foaly ran a search, and a minute later, his mouth was hanging open, his carrot on the floor.

"He… he w-was last seen a-at 2… leaving the b-b-bathroom b-by the back en-entrance," Foaly stammered.

"This makes you stutter horribly why?" Root demanded.

"The p-pixie Trouble and Holly c-caught the other day- T-tree- escaped. R-remember I t-told you yesterday?" Seeing Root nod on his computer screen, he took a deep breath and continued. "He dragged Grub out by the c-collar."

* * *

**8:00 AM**

**On The Surface, 30 Minutes From E1: Tara**

Trouble looked at his monometer.

"We've been out here for 4 hours, we should go back. There's no way he's up here, Foaly still has no leads, nothing on scopes, he's not tagged, nothing."

"Normally I'd tease you for quitting, but I'm all for it," Holly replied. "I'm exhausted."

Trouble talked to Unknown and Pop-Tart through his helmet mic.

"We're heading back to the shuttle. We'll get back in about half an hour, flying."

"Roger that, Captain," the sprite concurred. "Pop and I will be back in an hour minimum, more likely another 15 minutes."

"Okay. See ya back there."

The two elves took to the sky, each thinking his or her own thoughts. Mostly these thoughts centered around the person next to them.

Holly and Trouble landed just outside the shuttle and went inside, taking up their by now familiar positions in the passenger area of the shuttle. Trouble wrapped his arms around Holly's waist and pulled her into his lap, resting his forehead against hers.

"I love you, Holly," he said gently. Holly felt his warm breath on her face.

She replied, "I love you, too, Trub."

Trouble pressed his lips to hers, and his left hand pulled her closer to him, pushing lightly against her lower back. His other hand was on the back of her neck, playing with her short, auburn hair.

One of Holly's hands was on the back of Trouble's head, and the other was on the back of _his _neck, playing with _his _hair.

After about a minute, the two pulled away. Trouble's hands went back around Holly's waist, and Holly's went around Trouble's neck. She rested her head on his shoulder, and the two fell asleep.

They seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

* * *

**3:15 AM**

**Root's Office**

Root immediately set up a connection with Captain Vein. He'd have talked to Trouble, but didn't want to worry him yet. Root, concerned?

"Captain, we need you to track down the pixie Tree. He's been tagged. He took Corporal Kelp out of the building by the back entrance an hour ago, at 2 AM. **(A/N: Just a reminder, 2 AM on the surface. This is the fairy equivalent of 2 in the afternoon).**Foaly says he's in one of the 'sleazy illegal restaurants' in Haven's Market District. He also tells me the entrance to it is in the bathroom of Happy as a Clam. Have fun." Root was surprised at himself. A joke? He was changing.

He had no more time to ponder it, however, as a call from his elder son came in.

"Commander, sir, what if we can't find a trace of another fairy, let alone goblin, up there? What should we do?"

"You haven't even gotten there yet, Kelp," Root bellowed, his face a shiny red. "Don't worry about something that's not going to happen!"

Trouble didn't call again.

* * *

**10:00 AM**

**E1: Tara Shuttle Port**

Trouble woke up and realized the shuttle wasn't moving. What had woken him? Holly was just stirring, too. Unknown came in from the cockpit and Holly hastily slid, half-asleep, out of Trouble's lap and into the next seat. Unknown noticed and grinned.

"We came in and you two were asleep, so we flew back down. It's 10 AM, and we're sitting in the shuttle port. I don't know about you, but _my _shift ended a couple of hours ago." He sounded annoyed as he said this.

Trouble groaned. He wasn't even supposed to have work today. How was this a crisis? Julius Root was about to answer that.

* * *

Trouble barged into his dad's office, sporting a shade of red rather like the old elf. When he's relatively calm, that is, as no one can be more angry than Commander Root, although many have tried. Don't ask.

"How the hell was that enough of an emergency to go back on your word and drag Holly and me back to work again? Holly's exhausted!" he screamed, the words flying out of his mouth so fast, Root almost didn't catch them.

Before answering, Root thought for a moment about what tone to use with his son. Should he yell back? He certainly was mad. Or should he try to calm him down? It's easy to guess what tactic he picked.

"I told you to go on a mission!" Root fumed. "It's your job. Don't get mad at me for your career choices! If you weren't in the LEP, you'd have known I was your dad long ago!"

"You told me Holly and I wouldn't be needed, save an emergency! Nine goblins on the surface is big, I'll give you that, but not a crisis!" Trouble retorted.

"Yes a crisis! One of them-"

"We couldn't find! But you couldn't have known that ahead of time!"

"Let me finish!" Root snapped. Trouble glared at him and dropped into the very (comfortable) chair Root had just vacated, standing up in his anger. He hadn't even noticed.

"One of the goblins wasn't a goblin. No interruptions," he added, noticing Trouble take a breath to say something. Both were calming down. A bit. "It was a pixie. The tagged one of the group, and the one you couldn't find."

"But whenever we checked," Trouble interrupted, taking advantage of Root's pause to take a drink of spring water, "the tagged one was always there."

"So he was. He was probably shielded. Did you check after you tagged the others?"

"Yes. There were nine icons marking tagged fairies, but only eight goblins in the cell. Holly counted, eight times. We think it's a glitch. When we told Foaly, he got real pale. Didn't say a word. I haven't seen him since."

"Was the cam-foil in the cell with the goblins?" Root interrogated.

"Yeah, but we only had eight to begin… oh…. You're saying we had the ninth. The pixie we though was a goblin, because that's what _you_ told us. He or she went under the cam-foil when we got on the shuttle. Before that, they were shielded, and stuck with the goblins to make us think it was one of them who was already tagged. We knew the cam-foil was thrown in the cell, not very carefully, so we wouldn't worry if it looked like someone was under it."

"Exactly what I'm saying. You're a smart boy, Trouble. That must be from your mom…. Before I go on, why did you tag all eight goblins if you thought one was already tagged?"

"We couldn't tell which was tagged," Trouble said. "The icon wasn't in quite the right place to be any of them, but the cam-foil didn't look like there was anything there, so we didn't look. Like I said, we though it was a glitch."

"I see. Anyway, you got the goblins out of the shuttle and the pixie left too. But then he escaped. Tree took your brother, Trouble. He got Ash Vein, too."


	4. Iris Cam Images, Or Lack Thereof

**A/N: 488 words. Short chapter. I have lots more written, but it's very random and about sports. If you don't like sports, don't read it. Also, the 'adventure' part of this story is very quick. No huge fights or anything. I could, however... you'll see.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this chapter. Eoin Colfer owns it all.**

As Ash Vein strutted up to Happy as a Clam, he realized he wouldn't need to find any hidden entrances in any bathrooms. He figured this out because Tree punched him in the face.

Ash staggered backward, magic healing his nose. He quickly drew his Neutrino and covered his face with his visor, meanwhile screaming "I found Tree" to Root through his helmet mic. Now he was safe, relatively speaking. But before he could get a shot off, Tree slugged him in the gut. Ash doubled over, letting go of the Neutrino in the process. Tree grabbed it and shot the captain in the chest as he straightened up.

* * *

Root glared at his office wall, willing Vein to answer him. He knew it was useless. Unfortunately, Vein had no camera. Root had noticed this when the captain said he was within view of Happy as a Clam. Upon inspection, Foaly had never given him a camera for his helmet, or even an iris cam. That ludicrous centaur!

* * *

Trouble Kelp sat in his cubicle, thinking. He had 30 seconds left of the five-minute break Root had given him. That was a lot, circumstances considering.

He grabbed his water bottle and strolled out the door and down the corridor to his dad's office.

"KELP!" Root yelled from his office door.

"I'm right here, sir," Trouble replied calmly, stopping next to his father.

"Good. You know what to do. Go," Root told him, placing his hand on Trouble's shoulder and pushing him lightly toward the door.

Trouble nodded and walked out of Police Plaza, heading for his apartment. He still wore his Retrieval suit, but his Neutrino 2000 wasn't dangling from his hip, and his LEP helmet wasn't on his pointy-eared head.

As he got closer to his apartment, he noticed he was being watched, and by someone other than all the little fairies staring at him and his stealth black suit in awe.

Trouble walked right past his apartment and instead went to Holly's. The plan was to have the stalker follow him there, tempted by the thought of capturing two of LEP's best.

It worked. As he knocked on Holly's door, he sensed the stalker, presumably Tree, come up behind him and draw a weapon, presumably a softnose laser.

Trouble whipped around… and got punched in the face, much like Ash Vein did, only Trouble was knocked out. Tree roughly tied Trouble's hands behind his back and threw him out of the way, right as Holly opened the door, completely unaware of what had happened.

"D'Arvit. I gotta look before opening the door…" she muttered. Even she, the amazing Captain Short, was no match for the massive Tree, however, and she was soon trussed up like a turkey next to Trouble.

* * *

Root smiled as Holly's iris cam winked out, just as Trouble's had. Perfect.


	5. Sitting in a Cell

**A/N: Sorry I took so long to update, but I did. The sixth chapter is partially typed on my computer right now, I'll finish that when i get the chance... Sorry again, and please review!**

**11:27 AM, Saturday**

**Unknown (Not the Sprite) Location**

For the second time in as many days, Holly Short woke up on a cell, next to Trouble Kelp. However, Ash Vein and Trouble's brother, Grub Kelp, were both present.

"Holly?" Trouble sounded worried.

"Yeah?" Holly mumbled, her eyes closed.

"Open you eyes."

"Why?"

"Open your eyes!" Trouble insisted.

Holly cracked open her eyes, or rather, she cracked open her left eye. Her right eye remained shut as though glued. She felt it. Sure enough, it was swollen.

"What happened?" she asked curiously.

"Tree punched you in the face," Trouble admitted. "We were hoping you were only pretending to be unconscious, like me, until we got down here and you were still out cold. I got the whole way here on my iris cam…. D'Arvit, which eye is your cam in?" Trouble added frantically.

Holly thought for a moment, but couldn't remember. So instead….

"Foaly? You there?"

"Yeah, Holls. Watching Trouble from your cam… yes, it's in your left eye," the centaur said, realizing exactly what she wanted.

"Thanks," she said, very glad Tree had missed her earpiece. He'd never notice the mic glued to her throat.

"Thank god," Trouble said, pulling Holly close to his side against the stone wall, and kissing the top of her head. She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Well, eye.

"Now what?" Grub asked.

"We wait, what else?" Trouble snapped.

"You're supposed to be watching out for me, mommy said. Not letting me get kidnapped!" Grub whined.

Trouble growled, "I was on a surface mission! How is it my fault you didn't watch out for yourself?"

Grub pouted, having no answer, and sat back against the opposite wall. Everyone was silent. Eventually they drifted off, one by one, but Trouble couldn't sleep. _Why did Holly have to get dragged into this? _he wondered. _Why did Root make me get her captured again?_

He was the only one in the cell who didn't get any sleep that night.

**9:00 PM, Sunday**

**Same Unknown Location**

Waking up in a small box with three other full-grown fairies isn't much fun, but it's what happened. Ash Vein sat up slowly, his whole body stiff from the night. He looked at Grub next to him, started shaking him.

"Grub, wake up. We need a plan. Now."

Grub rolled over in his sleep, mumbling something about telling mommy. Vein sighed.

"Don't bother. He won't get up any time soon. Plus, he's claustrophobic. I was surprised he didn't seem to mind _much _yesterday, but he minded. I could see it in his eyes. Anyway, in a 4 by 4 by 4 cube, he won't be to happy."

Ash gulped. "That small?" he verified.

Ash turned and looked at Trouble as he asked. He looked like his voice sounded: tired. His eyes were blood-shot and had deep shadows under them. He probably couldn't have stood up straight if his life depended on it, not that sleeping on a stone floor would help that at all.

"Yes. To small for four full-grown LEP officers," Trouble informed him.

As if on cue, Tree opened the thick wooden door that separated the foursome from the outsde world, and pulled a sleeping Grub and protesting Ash out by their collars.

They heavy slamming of the door as it closed woke Grub outside the cell and Holly within.

"Where are the other, Trub?" Holly asked sleepily, looking around her.

"Holly, stop rubbing your eyes. Iris cam, remember? How's your right eye? It looks a bit better."

"I still can't open t, but it doesn't hurt, either."

"I'm going to…" Trouble paused. "Foaly? Is Root seeing this?" Trouble checked.

"But of course, for what else would Julius be doing? It's not like he has a social life or anything," Foaly said.

Holly and Trouble heard muffled yelling in their earpieces and caught a few words and phrases, like 'call,' 'Julius,' and 'I have a.' No doubt this was Root.

"_Anyway_," Trouble continued, "I was saying before that I'm going to _kill _my dad for making me get you captured, too. Especially because of your eye. I assume you haven't any magic if you have yet to heal it?"

"Right. The four-hour shield search… yesterday? spent my magic," Holly confirmed.

"Same."

"Great. We need to get out of here, nab Tree, find Grub and Ash. All that with three eyes and two elves," Holly groaned.

"Don't forget your genius friend the centaur, Holly," Foaly reminded her.

"And our genius friend the centaur. So, Mr. Genius Friend, what do we do now?" Holly questioned.

"Did Tree find Trouble's hidden Neutrino?"

This time Trouble replied.

"I felt him take it as soon as he tied up Holly. It's hanging from his hip right now. I don't have anything else on me."

Holly leaned against Trouble's shoulder again and sighed. "So, now what?" she asked. "And don't say 'we wait, what else?' like you said to Grub, Trubs."

"Now," Root said from the Ops Booth, "now, you wait. Next time Tree opens the door, fight him. Then get Captain Vein and Grub, they don't have any communications on them."

Trouble sighed and reached into his pocket, seeing if he had anything entertaining in there. To his surprise, he pulled out a stack of playing cards.

For the next five hours, Holly and Trouble played Three Card, Spit, Go Fish, Texas Hold 'Em, Bridge, and countless other card games, often made up on the spot.

At 2:15 in the afternoon, Tree opened the cell again.


	6. Escape

**A/N: _Currently Unnamed _has a total of 1177 hits (AFC, you're doing great!), and 11 reviews! Come on, guys! Please, if you hate the story, just tell me that! I need to know how I'm doing! And I'm working on getting this done, but it's kind of boring to write a story, and then type it, and proof-read, and stuff. So... I'm lazy. Sorry :( I'm trying though, I'm trying!**

**2:15 AM**

**Operations Booth, Police Plaza**

Root and Foaly watched as Trouble and Holly looked up from their card game. Realizing what was happening, Trouble was up and out of the door, Holly hot on his heels, before Tree could figure out what was going on. He dropped the bowl of food he was carrying in surprise and sliced carrots jumped out of the wooden bowl, rolling away from the startled pixie and determined elves. Foaly gasped.

"Those poor carrots!"

"Two of your limited friends are in danger, and all you can think about are some lousy carrots?!" Root critiqued angrily.

"Carrots aren't lousy!"

"But they're more important than your friends?"

Foaly sat again in his modified chair and huffed angrily.

Meanwhile, on screen, Tree went right for Trouble, seeing him as a bigger threat than the slight Holly, even unrested as he was.

Trouble dodged a right hook and retaliated with an uppercut. Tree danced out of the way, more agile than he looked. Trouble circled away from Holly.

Holly snuck up behind Tree and waited until all his attention was on Trouble, and he stopped moving. She carefully unclipped his keys and slipped them in her pocket. He, like Turnball, used key locks, although he wasn't _nearly_ as well known or wealthy as the eldest Root, so it was expected. She noticed the keys had cloth covers so as not to make noise as Tree walked, probably so he could keep them with him as he snuck around Haven. That was good; she didn't have to worry about a slight jingle giving her away.

As Trouble battled it out with the pixie, ducking and dodging, occasionally getting in a punch or kick of his own, Holly's iris cam showed that she was going in the direction. Captain Vein and Corporal Kelp had been taken. She only knew they'd gone this way because the other way was a dead end, a solid stone wall, behind Trouble.

Holly ran down the hall, looking for anything that could be hiding two prisoners. She heard a sickening crack from behind her.

"Foaly! What happened?"

"Trouble got slammed into the wall. He's okay, though."

Foaly sounded like he was lying.

At the end of the stone passage, there was a flight of stairs. Holly sprinted up and stopped at the top, having a decision to make: right or left. She chose left, turned left again, and sprinted farther and farther from Tree and a possibly injured Trouble.

Holly heard her breath coming in shorts gasps, more from worry about Trouble and getting out than anything. She was in great shape, after all.

There was nothing more down this hallway. Holly was about to turn around when she noticed something- a vent. Now she had to make another choice- should she continue running through the halls, every step reverberating off the walls, or should she crawl through the air ducts?

The chances of the ducts being reinforced and safe were very bad. She'd probably break right through. Plus, she might have to climb straight up or drop straight down if she had to go up or downstairs.

But running around the halls wasn't a great plan either. If Tree beat Trouble- which he might, after the nauseating crack, paired with the fact that Trouble had not eaten since the previous day at 8 in the morning (two quick Pop-Tarts)- then he'd hear her footsteps, whether she tried to be quiet or not.

She bent down, for the vent was near the floor, broke straight through the thin metal grille, and stuck her head in the vent. A very long way from her, there was a small amount of light. So her next chance to get out of the vent, if she went in, wouldn't be for a while.

Holly stuck to the halls. Sorry, no thrilling air ducts today.

Holly ran down the corridor, back in the direction she'd come from. Her feet pounded hard on the floor. She slowed as she came to the right turn, and heard a dull thud, followed a minute later by footsteps. They sounded too heavy to be Trouble, so she picked up the pace, turning right. She shot past the staircase, and turned right again, down the parallel corridor. Nothing down hallway, either. Must be a secret passage she'd missed… Or a left turn she hadn't noticed at the end of the hallway until she was whirling around to leave.

A few feet away were a set of stairs. A sprite and an elf had their backs to her at the top. Holly's breath caught in her throat. When she was sure they hadn't noticed her, she was amazed, but wasted no time and slinked quietly up the stairs. She punched the elf in the back of the head and sent him sprawling. The sprite, who had realized they weren't alone anymore, turned on Holly and ran screaming in fear. Wimp. Holly sprinted after him and tackled him to the ground.

Suddenly there was a pressure on her back. Holly flipped her head up backwards and caught the elf on her back off guard, making him jump enough that she could slip out from between him and the sprite. He fell with a soft 'oof' and rolled off his companion. Holly hit him in the head, a swift rabbit punch to the forehead. She did the same to the sprite. Holly went back to the top of the stairs and bent down. She noticed there were two MP3 players on the ground, which explained the inattentiveness.

"That was easy."

Holly jumped up and spun around so fast she almost fell down the stairs, which Trouble Kelp was standing on, halfway up, grinning from ear to ear, with the colossal Tree slung over his shoulder.

"Any sign of Ash or Grub?" Trouble asked.

"No…. If it was so easy, what took you so long? And what was the loud crack as I ran toward the stairs?"

"No, you misunderstood, Holls," Trouble explained. "Taking out Tree is like, well, like taking out a tree. I meant easy for you to get those two." He swept his hand wide toward the sprite and elf. He hadn't answered the question about the noise, a fact Holly did not miss.

"Oh…. Well, we should go find Grub and Ash," Holly decided.

Trouble nodded and grabbed Holly's hand, interlocking their fingers. They walked cautiously down the hall, looking for their commander's son. Not to mention Ash. Unfortunately, they weren't in the best shape. Holly's right eye was still swollen shut, Trouble had multiple cuts and bruises, perhaps an injury he wouldn't share, he was carrying Tree, and both fairies had lost their earpieces, so they couldn't hear Foaly or the commander.

_Fortunately_, this wasn't a problem, as they soon found the cell Ash and Grub were in. They were sitting in a soft padded room that belonged in a mental institution.

Holly unlocked the door with the stolen keys. "We'd better get home, boys," she declared. "Tomorrow's the start of Mud Man Sports Week."

"D'Arvit… I need to find my equipment…" Trouble realized with a look of fear. "I hope it's all in my closet, but I don't remember for sure. But this year, we're gonna beat Atlantis! Let's figure out how to get out of here first though…."

"Nice motivational speech, Trubs," Holly snickered. Grub high-fived her for the nickname.

Trouble grumbled something incoherent and walked away. "Hey, guys. Do you think maybe, just maybe, we could get out of here by the door marked 'exit'?"

"Oh, probably not, Trub, but we can try," muttered Holly sarcastically, pushing lightly past him and leading the way down the hall to the door. She opened it to see… Police Plaza. You could almost hear four elfin **(A/N: I'm making Vein an elf) **jaws hit the floor. After standing there, astonished, for a minute or two, Holly turned on Trouble.

"You said you had the whole way here on your iris cam! Did you really not know we were this close to Police Plaza?"

Trouble responded sheepishly. "I wasn't very alert. Foaly didn't say anything to me. Maybe Tree was careful to face me away from Police Plaza, just in case. Anyway, let's get you fixed up, so we can get some rest for tomorrow."

"We'd better find your dad first," Holly said, and strode away.

The rest of the group followed, and Holly locked the door behind them using Tree's keys. No one could leave through that door, as you needed a key to open it from either side. This was strange, Holly noted, looking at the structure. They'd been in a regular apartment building. Tree was turning out to be a pretty smart guy.

"Short! Vein! Kelp! Kelp! Get over here!" came a loud, angry voice. "We have Retrieval out, scouring the city for you, and you appear out of _there_?"

"Tree held us in there, sir," Holly explained, turning to face Root. "There's an elf and a sprite unconscious in there, and Tr- Captain Kelp has Tree. I think the elf and sprite may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, though."

"Major Evergreen will take care of them, he's right over there." Root turned around and walked over to the elf. He talked to him quickly, and headed back to the other four. Evergreen walked by them, acknowledging them with a wave and a smile.

"I'll talk to Ash and Grub about this whole thing, and watch what happened on your iris cams. You two need sleep, we can't have our two best players out of the line-up. Ash, Grub, we'll get you home, ASAP, too."

**Later That Night (Sunday)**

**Captain Short's Apartment**

Holly and Trouble collapsed on Holly's bed, kissing passionately. As Trouble slipped her shirt over her head, Holly muttered, "I guess it's no too early any more, just two nights later."

"No, it's not," Trouble mused.


	7. Mud Men Sports Week

**A/N: You know that 'Mud Men Sports Week' Holly mentioned in the last chapter? Yeah, now you get to find out what it is. If you don't like sports, I'm sorry, but I love them. I had to throw them in somewhere, and so I found a place. Again, if you don't like sports, you don't have to read, and this story is over for you. I hope you enjoyed, and for those who keep reading, I hope you enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or places. They belong to Eoin Colfer. I do not own the sports, either.**

Mud Men Sports Week was a pretty big deal in the Lower Elements. More than that. It was massive. It pitted Haven and Atlantis police fairies against each other in five different Mud Men sports, one for each day, Monday to Friday.

Being on one of the Haven teams meant a lot, mainly because each team had almost the same roster, and players took every opportunity to boast about it, even though they'd never won. Who ever won the most games had bragging rights for the next year. Atlantis made sure anyone from Haven, but especially Commander Root, never forgot that they had won the previous three years.

The posters around Haven reminded everyone about the upcoming event, though it's not like anyone didn't know already. (Look here (remove spaces): i95. photobucket. com /albums/l150/doglefox0601/HavenPoster.gif)

Apart from baseball and hockey, the games were more scrimmages than anything. There were rules, but not all the Mud Men's rules were used. Mostly you put on your uniform and played when it was your turn. There weren't many penalties or offsides and such, though there were some basic rules.

Baseball and hockey, the crowd favorites, had all the rules the Mud Men equivalents had, however.

In all the sports, proper equipment was used. Some fairies, mostly elves for the reason that they could blend in best, worked for companies like Reebok, and learned how to make equipment. The LEP paid them to do this, and so got the gear from them, in fairy sizes. It was impossible to lay hands on equipment outside the police force unless you went to the surface, but then you'd have quite a hard time finding the right size, and you'd never get a chance to really use it.

There were even different species-specific things, like modified shoulder pads and jerseys for sprites, and extra-thick padding in pixie helmets.

Despite the normal LEP uniforms being green, Haven's colors were black, a dark(ish) red, and white. Atlantis, however, did wear a dull green, and a dull yellow. A quick description of the uniforms **(A/N: If you don't know much about the sport, it may help you to go to an online shop for that sport, to look at the equipment. Use Google or Yahoo or some such thing. Also keep in mind that none of the fabric is like a regular t-shirt, but I can't describe the way a fabric feels, and each sport is different.)**:

**Haven (All writing is in Gnommish) (All reds are darker than normal red.)**

**Basketball- **Black shirt, 'Haven' across chest, in red. Last name and number on back, in red. White stripes down sides, sleeveless. Plain red shorts. Black high-tops.

**Soccer-** Black shirt, 'Haven' across chest, red. Name, number, on back, red. White collar, sleeves. Plain red shorts. Black cleats, socks.

**Lacrosse- **Red shirt, black 'Haven,' Black shoulders/sleeves. Name, number, on back, black. Plain black shorts. Black/red/white gloves. Red/black helmet. Black cleats. Stick colors vary.

**Baseball-** White button-up jersey with red 'Haven' (on front), name, number (on back). Red stripes around sleeves, over seem. Black hat, red H on front, Haven on back, above Velcro adjust. White baseball pants, red stripes down sides, red socks, black cleats. Black batting helmets, red H on front, number on back. Catchers equipment- solid black, number on back plate of helmet, harness of chest protector, top strap of shin guard. Last name on neck of chest protector.

More or less Boston Red Sox road uniform, in different colors.

**Hockey- **Black jersey with red 'Haven,' shoulders, sleeves. Name, number, on back, red. 2 white stripes around wrists, waist. White collar. Mesh down sides. Number on sleeves, below H, both white. Red hockey pants with white stripes down sides. Black H on left thigh. Black hockey socks **(A/N: These go over the shin guards, but not the foot)** with a red stripe below a white one, black between. Black helmets. Red/black/white gloves. Sticks and skates vary. (See (remove spaces): i95. photobucket. com /albums/l150/doglefox0601/HavenHockeyUniform.jpg and keep in mind I can't do Gnommish on this computer, and that I did it in paint, so it doesn't look great.)

**Atlantis (All writing is in Gnommish) (All colors are 'dull,' as opposed to 'bright.')**

**Basketball- **Green shirt with yellow 'Atlantis' on front. Name, number, on back. Yellow shoulders, collar. Yellow shorts w/green stripes down sides. White high-tops.

**Soccer-** Yellow jersey, 'Atlantis' in green on chest. Name, number on back, green. No stripes. Plain green shorts. Yellow socks. Yellow/green cleats.Lacrosse- Green jersey, yellow 'Atlantis' (on front), name, number (on back). Green shorts, yellow stripes down sides. Yellow/green gloves, helmets, cleats. Sticks vary.

**Lacrosse- **Green shirt, yellow 'Atlantis' (on front), name, number (on back). Green shorts, yellow stipe down right leg only. Yellow/green gloves, helmets, cleats. Sticks vary.

**Baseball-** Green button-up, yellow 'Atlantis' (on front), name, number (on back). Yellow hat, green 'A' (on front), 'Atlantis' (on back), stretch fit. Plain white baseball pants, green socks, yellow/green cleats.

Catchers equipment- solid green, number on back plate of helmet, harness of chest protector, top strap of shin guard. Last name on neck of chest protector.

**Hockey-** Dull yellow jersey, green 'Atlantis' (on front), name, number (on back). 2 green stripes on wrists, waist. Green collar. Green 'A' on sleeves, above number. Green pants, yellow A on left thigh, two yellow stripes down sides. Yellow socks, 2 green stripes. Green helmets. Yellow/green gloves. Sticks, skates vary.

More or less University of New Hampshire Wildcats home, with different colors.

It was kind of insane how seriously Haven was took Mud Men Sports Week. The day after it ended, Sunday, the try-outs for the next year were held, for all five sports, one right after the other, with barely enough time to change into the right clothes. They didn't really even need try-outs, however, as the rosters rarely changed.

After Atlantis had won the past three years, the Council had 'improved' the training schedule. Each sport was required to have at least three practices a month for the first four months after Sports Week (July included; MMSW was always the second week in July), and they were scheduled around each other, so that they didn't have basketball practice when they had baseball. This was because some people were on all five teams.

The next three months, November, December, and January, all the teams had five practices a month. That's 25 nights of practice a month for anyone on all five teams.

From February to May, every team needed to hold at least five practices, and two weight room sessions, each month. Another 25 practices a month, and ten weight room sessions.

In June, they got dealt a major break, with only one weight room session and two practices per team. The first week of July, they had off.

For the fairies on all five teams, they had about 275 practices in approximately 350 days, and 45 weight room sessions in about five months, all crammed in unevenly, despites protests to spread it all out.

And _all_ of that is on top of their regular LEP duties.

Atlantis players train as a group, everyone on all the teams, for the weight room and sprints and such. Then each team also has a few practices a month.

The main reason Root didn't do something about changing the schedule to something easier, to take some stress off his officers, was that it kept them in top physical condition. Plus, the missed a great deal of practices anyway, seeing as protecting the People came before entertaining them.

Another thing that comes with Sports Week is the merchandise. All the players get certain warm-ups for each sport, personalized with names and numbers. They sometimes get something like Trouble's personalized moonometer or Holly's MVP ring, the only jewelry she wore. Trouble set a hockey record the previous year, and got a moonometer from the Council. Sounds dumb, but hey, the Council is cheap. The moonometer was nice, though. It had the final score, 2-0, on the strap, and a red Haven H on a black background on the face. The hands were red. Besides, his teammates all chipped in and got him all new gear.

No goalie, for that was Trouble's position, had ever scored a goal _and_ gotten a shutout in the same game. Trouble's goal was also the game winner. Holly netted one near the end, too, but overall, Atlantis won, having beaten Haven in every other sport.

Haven was hoping to win it all this year.

Let the games begin.


	8. Basketball

**A/N: So, here we are. Mud Men Sports Week officially begins, a week after the original story, _Currently Unnamed,_began. Seems like it took much longer, doesn't it? But it was all one week, and here's a second. Enjoy. Oh, and excuse all the OCs, from here on out, there are a bunch, but I used who I could from the books. I also made up a first name for Major Evergreen, from the AFF, but I left Vinyaya alone. Again, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Most of this belongs to Eoin Colfer. If you don't know what belongs to him, and what belongs to me, you shouldn't be reading this.**

Trouble and Holly woke up early on Monday morning. They each showered and put on a black t-shirt that said 'Haven' on it, and plain red shorts. Both wore their black high top sneakers untied over their (black) socks, with their Haven baseball caps sitting on their heads.

"So, you ready, Trubs?" Holly asked, munching on a Frosted Brown sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tart from the stock Pop-Tart had given her.

"Hell yeah. Game's at 7, practice this afternoon at 2 AM. It's…" –he looked at his 'Haven' moonometer- "10 PM."

Trouble stood up and grabbed his second S'more Pop-Tart off the table and stuffed part of it in his mouth, reaching for Holly's hand. She fumbled with the lock using one hand as they left, having grabbed their red 'Haven' duffel bags, embossed with their name and number on the side, on the way out the door. Trouble had gotten his things from his apartment the night before.

They walked down the street, still chewing their Pop-Tarts, hand-in-hand, past Police Plaza, and onto the huge sports complex behind, as Haven was hosting Mud Men Sports Week this year. The building housed two turf fields, for lacrosse and soccer, a baseball diamond, a hardwood basketball court, and an ice hockey rink, all scaled down to fairy size. Each playing surface was separated from the next, and the whole building soundproof. It was also completely air-conditioned, like the rest of Haven. Of course, the ice hockey rink was colder than the rest of the building, as the ice needed to be, well, ice. No point trying to play ice hockey on water-covered cement.

Each field had stands with a seating capacity of exactly 8,000 People. 5,000 tickets were sold to Haven fans, and 3,000 to Atlantis fans. 150 seats were reserved for special guests, and players on the other teams who weren't playing that day. The special guests were invited by the LEP, and their tickets were paid for. Those players didn't have to pay, but to get in, they needed to have their player access cards. Without it, they couldn't get to the state-of-the-art locker rooms (equipped with bathrooms, just in case), and they would have to pay to get into the building at all.

Holly and Trouble jogged down to the Haven locker room and flashed their access cards at the guard at the door, who unlocked it for them.

Guards were stationed throughout the entire complex, and at noon, when patrons were allowed inside, all players had police escorts. Other than themselves or their teammates, that is. Some people, like Iorek (pronounced 'your-ick,' or 'york,' if said faster) Rish, had guard duty for the basketball game, and then would play in the soccer game, or some such thing. Rish was actually the guard Trouble and Holly had just passed by.

The three Haven locker rooms had black doors with 'Haven' written on them in red. The walls, like all the walls in the building, were black at the bottom, white on top, with a two-inch-thick stripe of red between them. The lockers were nice, shiny, wooden stalls, the perfect size to sit in, but they also had a curtain (red, of course) for privacy. Remember, not all the players were guys. There was plenty of space to stand when the curtain was pulled shut, so you could change easily behind it. There were also shelves for equipment to be stored on, and engraved gold nameplates on top, marking each locker.

This locker room was used for basketball, soccer, and lacrosse. The baseball field and hockey rink were farther into the complex, so they had their own locker rooms. Plus, the hockey locker room needed rubber floors because of the razor-sharp skates every player wore. The baseball locker room lead straight to the dugout, and the hockey locker room went straight to the bench; both were under the stairs.

"Hey Pop. Thanks for the breakfast," Trouble said.

Pop-Tart looked up from his book. "Yeah, no problem."

"Is the official roster out yet?" Holly asked. "I haven't seen it."

"What, you don't know your own teammates, Holls?" Trouble teased, elbowing her gently in the ribs as Pop-Tart handed her a sheet of paper.

Holly rolled her eyes and looked at the paper.

**Rank/Name/Number/Species**

Captain/Unknown Scott/2/Sprite

Corporal/Robert Jones/3/Sprite

Captain/Ash Vein/9/Elf

Captain/George "Pop-Tart" Oak/10/Elf

Captain/Holly Short/13/Elf

Private/Chix Verbil/15/Sprite

Wing Commander/Vinyaya/16/Elf

Major/Nick Evergreen/19/Elf

Corporal/Grub Kelp/20/Elf

Captain/Trouble Kelp/30/Elf

"It's amazing how little changes there are to all the rosters," Trouble commented. "Where's Coach? And the rest of the team?"

"I was the first here, you guess second and third. Coach left a minute or so before you came in," Pop-Tart reported.

Holly looked at the list again. "Your name is George?" she asked incredulously.

Pop-Tart nodded, red-faced.

"That's an awesome name, you know, Pop," Holly said.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

Holly and Trouble went to their lockers next to each other and hung up their basketball shirts and shorts. They pulled out the things for soccer and lacrosse, too, and put them on shelves, folded until they were needed. Then the put the empty duffel bags in a small cupboard near the bottom of each locker. Trouble sat down, but Holly walked over to the corner and plugged in the subwoofer sitting there. She plugged her MP3 player in, put on 'Who Are You' (CSI theme song) and went back to her locker, settled in, and waited.

* * *

At 2 AM, 1,000-odd spectators were already there. The crowd was mostly made up of black-and-red-clad Haven fans, but a handful of Atlantis fans sat in the visitor's bleachers too. Most of them, however, were settling into hotel rooms before the 7 AM tip-off.

Haven took the court, each player with his (or her) own basketball. They had an hour-long slot to practice a bit before the game. The hour allotted immediately before the game was mostly used to electrify the fans.

As the elves jogged onto the court, the sprites flew ahead. They were allowed to fly so long as they didn't travel, though coming from the locker room, their basketballs were held under their arms.

The team took some warm-up shots while their coach barked some orders like 'C'mon you lazy slugs!' and 'Make those 3-pointers, Trouble, unless you _want_ to be benched!' 3-pointers were Trouble's specialty.

They ran through various warm-up drills until eventually they did a short, 10-minute scrimmage, starters vs. back-ups. Then they went back to the locker room to hang out, stuff their faces, play video games, and get one of Commander Root's 'pep talks.' Basically, he walks in, growls something along the lines of 'you better win,' and walks out. Eventually he shows up behind the bench in a black 'Haven' hooded sweatshirt, plain black wind pants, and sneakers. Needless to say, everyone wanted pictures of him. But hey, he could have them get pictures of him in a dorky red suit that said 'Haven' on the pocket, with a white tie that had red polka dots, and a black 'H' inside each. Coach's don't get a lot of choice with the Council, not when they, too, want to see the legendary Commander Root dressed in something other than his LEP suit.

Trouble and Holly played each other in _Haven Underground 2_, a game Foaly invented. Players strap on the game controller wings and fly through the course as though on regular wings, the only difference beings that you couldn't go forward, you just hovered. There actually wasn't a _Haven Underground_, though. Foaly thought the '2' made it sound cooler. Holly won four out of five races.

Then Holly went against Major Nick Evergreen, and just barely beat him, three races to two. She lost all five to Wing Commander Vinyaya.

At five o'clock, the players sat down at a couple of card tables that had been erected next to each other in the middle of the locker room to eat dinner. They guzzled down salad, but Pop-Tart gave everyone some Pop-Tarts, too.

"Hey, Holly, you sure you can deal with those huge Atlantis guys? They have some big, hairy gnomes on their squad, and we don't want you to be to scared to get by them!" Everyone, including Holly, laughed at Evergreen's remark.

"I'll be fine, Nick. I'm small enough I can slip right through them. I'd be a bit worried if I were you, though…" she retorted.

"They could walk right into you and never notice. Me, on the other hand, they'll be running from me," Evergreen lobbed back playfully.

"They'll be running from your _major_ly lame insults, Evergreen!" Trouble joked, leaning back in his chair, bringing the front legs off the floor, and casually flipping his fork toward his superior. It landed, prongs down, in the soft top of the card table right in front of Evergreen's seat, and stood at attention, quivering.

When he realized he wasn't about to get hit with a fork, Evergreen came up from under the table and stared at it for a second. Keeping his eyes on the eating utensil, he stage whispered, "You little…" and dove back under the table, going straight for Trouble's chair. Luckily for Captain Kelp, the floor was carpeted, because Evergreen easily knocked over his already unbalanced chair, sending him to the floor. Trouble hit the carpet with a dull thud and flipped over backwards. Twice.

Trouble stood slowly, looked at Evergreen, and started cracking up. Everyone at the table had been sitting stock-still, watching, not knowing if Evergreen was actually mad. But Trouble was the only one who could see the kneeling Evergreen's face, so they started at Trouble like he was crazy, until Evergreen went back to his seat, and they could see the smirk plastered on his face.

This is more or less how they spent the whole hour, lobbing insults back and forth, occasionally yelling things such as 'owned!' or 'burned!'.

At 6 AM, Coach Root came in. "Win tonight, or lose forever. Your choice."

The players stood up from their places at the table, where they'd been playing cards to pass the time and keep their minds off the game. The team jogged by their coach, wearing the nice, clean basketball uniforms they had all put on just minutes before. Trouble, team captain (voted for by the players), stopped next to his dad.

"Now I know why you were so disappointed the last three years, not just mad," he finally understood.

"Yes. Get going. I don't like disappointment, son."

Trouble nodded and jogged after his teammates. They were lined up just outside the doors to the gym. He walked to the front of the line and waited.

At a signal from the guard standing there, again Iorek Rish, one of the lucky ones who got to see the game, he burst through the doors, into the silent gym, and jogged onto the court as everyone responded with screams and cheers to the explosive bang of the doors, as was customary.

Game time.


	9. Are You Ready For This?

**A/N: Here it is! My longest-ever chapter! So you know, Ash and Holly are fine. Again, sorry about all the OCs I had to make. It gets worse, too, because you can't always have exactly the same roster, where's the fun in that? Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I hate these... Yeah, so... all publicly recognized figures and places are property of Eoin Colfer. I own everyone and everything else. Oh, wait, not the song. That belongs to Space Jam.**

When the crowd in the Julius Root Gym (eventually Julius Root _Memorial_ Gym) erupted into cheers, Are You Ready For This? blasted from the speakers. Trouble ran skipped backwards onto the court, raising his arms in a signal for everyone to scream their –_censored-_ heads off. He turned as someone near the bench threw him a basketball, caught it cleanly, and dribbled in, en route for the Atlantis basket. He dunked it perfectly, right after he heard 'Y'all ready for this?' which just made the Haven fans cheer even louder. He was driving them wild.

The sprites flew above everyone's heads, the elves dribbled behind their backs, through their legs, and passed to the next in line. Wing Commander Vinyaya tossed an autographed black 'Haven' basketball (they used a regular brown ball in games) at a young pixie lucky enough to be sitting behind the Haven bench, right near where Root stood, his arms crossed across his chest. There were a lot of cameras pointed at him.

As the crowd calmed down a bit (about 45 minutes later), the ref came onto the court and stood in the center, with the game ball tucked safely under his arm. The two teams crowded around him, and he spoke to the whole gym through a microphone. He told them the few rules- no hurting someone, and no knocking them over, but just about anything else was legal. No traveling, and sprites couldn't travel, either, but they could fly. The only time they could hold the ball and not dribble was if they were going straight up.

The Atlantis team had one sprite, two elves, and seven big, hairy gnomes, just as Evergreen said.

The starters stayed on the court when the ref blew his whistle the first time. Five of the seven Atlantis gnomes stayed, the other two, the elves, and the sprite left to sit in front of their coach- a gnome.

Haven's starters consisted of Captain Trouble Kelp, Captain Holly Short, the sprite Corporal Robert Jones, Major Nick Evergreen, and Captain George 'Pop-Tart' Oak. Trouble was center for the jump ball, but they didn't _really_ have positions.

"Trouble Kelp taps the ball forward to his girlfriend, Holly Short. Short dribbles up the court, and passes back to Kelp. Kelp- fakes a shot, passes to Nick Evergreen. Evergreen, takes a shot! Misses. Robert Jones gets the rebound from the air, drops it straight down, it's 2-0 Haven." People who didn't get tickets to the game listened on radios or watched on TV, in homes and outside the complex. Many were camped outside, hoping to get in at 12 the next day, and tickets to the soccer game when they went on sale at 2 AM.

The gnomes of Atlantis started the ball back up, but they were slow and uncoordinated. It bounced off one's foot when he dribbled, but he kept running. By the time he realized the ball was gone, Trouble had dunked for another two points.

After the same gnome dribbled the ball of his foot _again_, the coach sent in one of the two elves for him.

The elf took a pass right from Trouble, as though it had been to him, not a bewildered Pop-Tart. He threaded through the defense and took a light, easy shot. Swish.

After a few more perplexing plays, Root sent in Vinyaya for Pop-Tart, and told her to make sure they passed more to Bob Jones- he should be in the air constantly.

Holly took the ball out from under the basket and dribbled to half-court before passing to Trouble, for the pesky little elf was on the other side of the court. Trouble brought the ball back behind him and threw it high in the direction of the basket. Jones caught it and threw it in for an easy two points. 8-6, Atlantis.

Seeing what Root was doing, the Atlantis coach took out two more gnomes, putting his other elf on the court and his sprite in the air. After a few minutes, Root compensated by sitting Holly and Nick Evergreen, putting Unknown and Chix in the air, too.

Trouble intercepted a pass from one of the gnomes and tossed it skyward to a sprite in black. It turned out to be Chix, who, for once, actually wasn't trying to impress the ladies. Maybe he was convinced they'd all love him if he won. Especially Holly.

Chix passed to Jones, who threw the ball to Unknown, near the hoop. By now it was 12-10, so Unknown dropped the ball through. 12-12 tie. The fifteen-minute quarter ended a minute later.

"It's an air battle, I've noticed," said Root to his team. "You guys are still in." He pointed to his sprites, who all grinned. "Trouble and Vinyaya, you're coming out. Ash, Grub, you're in."

Trouble stood at his dad's side. As soon as his brother was out of earshot… "Are you crazy, dad? Grub, in at a tie?"

"I told you, Trouble, it's an air battle," Root reminded him. "Grub needs to play, it's in the rules. Ash will take care of it if they get the ball down on the court."

"How'd Grub even make the team?"

"It was between him and Lili Frond…. God only knows how she made the baseball and hockey rosters, or why she even wanted to."

"Corporal Newt didn't try out for basketball? I don't remember who was there." Trouble thought about it, but couldn't recall for the life of him who had tried out.

"He tried out for the other four sports. I guess he doesn't like basketball," Root said, turning his attention back to the court.

Ash was just passing to Chix, who hovered near him. Chix shot straight up into the air and passed off to Jones. Jones passed to Unknown, who tossed it downward to Ash. Ash let it bounce once.

Big mistake. A huge hairy gnome had time to come flying out of nowhere and crash right into Ash, so that's just what he did. Ash slammed backwards into the bleachers, which had been a few feet from him just a second before. The whistle blew as a medical warlock followed Root from behind the bench, heading for the fallen player. Players weren't allowed to have magic for the games (any they might have is taken by the pinprick-to-the-thumb method), so Ash couldn't do anything for himself.

Ash was bleeding badly from a cut on the back of his head. Security guards moved people away from the area, then formed a protective circle around Ash as the gnome was taken out by the strong Major Iorek Rish and Captain Donovan Markov. He'd earned a one-way ticket back to Atlantis with that move- that kind of play was strictly prohibited, and resulted in expulsion from Sports Week.

The warlock stepped away from Ash and turned to Root.

"He should go rest. He'll be okay for tomorrow, and he's fine now, but just in case, you shouldn't play him."

Root grudgingly nodded and told Grub to bring Ash to the locker room and get him some water and food. He told Ash to lie down on the bed in the locker room, there for just such occasions.

Then he sent Holly and Evergreen back into the game.

Because Ash had been hurt, he got two free throws, but he couldn't take them. Atlantis got to pick anyone who was on the court at the time, except Grub, for Root had officially removed him from the game. Atlantis chose Unknown.

Unknown sunk the first shot. The ref gave the ball back to him, and he dribbled a moment, calming himself. He took the shot. It bounced off the rim, the backboard, the rim again… and straight into an Atlantis elf's hands.

The elf quickly passed to his already-airborne sprite, who tossed it ahead to the other, slightly older, elf. He did a left-handed lay up. 14-13, Atlantis.

Holly took the ball up, passing to Evergreen, who managed to hang on, despite the two rowdy elves trying to get the ball from him. He took advantage of an open Holly, and threw the ball over the elves, back at her. She caught it and sunk a long three-pointer, giving Haven a two-point lead.

A couple minutes later, Root took his sprites out of the air and put Trouble, Vinyaya, and Pop-Tart on the court with Holly and Evergreen.

This proved to be a very bad thing to do. Despite playing five quick elves, the two elves and three gnomes of Atlantis (their sprite was resting, too) held Haven well. It wasn't long before the scoreboard showed:

**Atlantis Haven**

28 16

With just three minutes left in the half, Trouble managed to get a pass to Holly, who dribbled by a stunned gnome and… ran straight into an Atlantis elf.

Actually, the elf ran into her. Both fell, the Atlantis elf clutching his ankle, the Haven elf holding her stomach where the wiry little guy had punched her.

Before she could stand up and make him regret it, though, she was hauled to her feet be Julius Root. She stumbled as he shoved her toward the bench, just noticing the slight limp from Friday's GSW healing. Trouble put one arm behind her knees and hit her gently, but hard enough for her to fall back a bit. He caught her and carried her back to the bench in her arms.

Trouble set Holly down beside him and watched, with his arm around Holly and hers around his waist, as his dad fought with the ref, who was ready to throw Holly out for knocking the elf over, and injuring him.

A few minutes passed before Root came back and told Trouble he and Holly were out for a while. The three sprites went out again, and the half ended soon after, 22-30, Atlantis.

In the locker room, Holly didn't look so good. In fact, as soon as Trouble got her to the bathroom, she threw up.

"D'Arvit," he breathed. "COACH!"

"What, Trouble?!" Root yelled, coming into the small bathroom. "D'Arvit…."

"That's what I said," his son agreed.

Holly looked like a sprite but for the fact that she had no wings.

For the rest of the break, Holly sat in front of the toilet, puking, while Trouble rubbed soothing circles on her back.

* * *

Holly was puking her guts out in the bathroom, Ash was in the shower room with a pounding headache, and Grub was running around taking care of the two. The rest of the team, now only seven players and Root, were out on the court, trying not to get crushed.

They weren't doing so well, for the score was now 24-42, with only four and a half minutes to play.

Root decided to put Trouble, Nick Evergreen, Pop-Tart, and Vinyaya on the court, with Unknown above them.

"Trouble, it's your game. Three-pointers are what we need, and that's your area. Six of them to tie," he told his oldest son.

Trouble nodded and ran onto the court after his teammates. With such a comfortable lead, the Atlantis coach had five of his six gnomes on the court, resting his elves and sprite. The elf who had run into Holly had had his ankle healed by his team warlock.

Trouble took the ball up in response to a basket just before he went on. He passed under a hairy gnome arm, a bounce pass that found the Wing Commander easily. Vinyaya to Evergreen. To Unknown. Unknown back to Trouble, just outside the three-point line. 27-42, Atlantis.

One of the gnomes who hadn't started in the game brought the ball up, but Evergreen stole it at half-court. 29-42, Atlantis.

One minute to go, 42-44, Atlantis. Two elves back out, one sprite in the air, three hairy gnomes on the bench. For Haven, it was Trouble, Evergreen, and the sprites. Trouble passed to Evergreen, who passed right back. Three… Trouble dribbled up. Two… Trouble stopped just outside the three-point arc. One… He took the shot.

The horn blared, but everyone waited with bated breath. The Atlantis sprite didn't even think to go block the shot. He hovered a couple of meters behind Trouble, watching.

The ball clanged off the backboard. It bounced… sideways. Atlantis fans cheered and stormed the court, while Trouble and the Haven squad hung their heads and shuffled dejectedly out of the gymnasium. Some Haven fans even ran up to the barriers separating them from the players and tried to get high-fives and auto-graphs. The sprites flew to avoid them, Trouble cursed at a few, and Root just glared at them. That, plus the police officers shooing them away, got everyone leaving.

At the sound of the locker room door banging open, Holly, Grub, and Ash looked up, hoping to see happy, cheering teammates. Instead, they saw one pissed off Trouble, one indescribably mad and disappointed (but mostly mad) Root, three sprites to upset to fly, and three elves who all looked ready to clock somebody. 3,100 somebodies.

Holly groaned and dropped back onto the bed, as Ash kicked a stray basketball.

_-Censored-_

* * *

Two freshly showered elves crawled into bed, immersed in their own thoughts.

Holly kissed Trouble lightly on the lips. "It's okay, Trouble. We'll get 'em back tomorrow night. Don't worry about it."

Trouble nodded, though Holly could barely tell in the darkness- she felt it more than saw it.

Holly snuggled up close to him and he wrapped his arms around her, thinking of the auburn-haired elf that had lost the game for Haven.

**A/N: I know no one got that last line. Trouble was thinking about Holly and if she was okay when he took the shot.**


	10. Soccer

**A/N: Spiked hair! (shrugs) (I accidentally put (shurgs), but I fixed it.) Don't forget to go to my pro (AFC-link is in story summary.) and click the link at the top for the poll, to vote for who you want to have the last slot on the hockey roster. Once I have the baseball chapter done, I'll close the poll, so vote while you can! After that, I'll put up a poll for Haven MMSW MVP. This chapter is for anyone jealous of Holly in H/T stories. Just pretend it's you on the feild, and it's even better :)**

**Disclaimer: If you don't know the difference between what I own and what Eoin Colfer owns, leave, and read Colfer's _Artemis Fowl_ books before you read this. And I don't own any music, the songs are property of the band that made them (which I include).**

Holly rolled over in her sleep. Or rather, she tried to. She woke up when she couldn't move, to find herself trapped in the prison of Trouble Kelp's arms. Of course, she didn't know why she woke up. She just did.

Trouble kissed the top of her head and rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him.

His lips found hers as his hands clung to Holly, holding her close. Her hands were memorizing his face and hair, the rough texture of his skin and the soft texture of his un-gelled hair.

Holly pulled away, panting slightly. "We should get going." She smiled at him.

"Yeah."

Trouble let go of her and she got off the bed, grabbing the same clothes she'd worn yesterday morning from the dryer in the hall, tossing Trouble's clothes and toothbrush at him. Trouble, now standing in bedroom doorway, caught it all and went back into the bedroom to get clean boxers and his hair gel.

He went into Holly's bathroom to change and spike his hair; something the soccer team did every year. Actually, Trouble always spiked his hair, except for basketball day, because it just wasn't something the basketball team did. Why he did it for hockey and lacrosse, when he wore a helmet, or baseball, for that matter, he didn't know.

Trouble came out of the bathroom to find Holly sitting in the kitchen, looking remarkably like him. Again, the stepped into the untied basketball sneakers, slipped their duffel bags onto their shoulders, and walked out of Holly's apartment. But when the reached the street, Holly took of running.

Trouble stood, stunned, for a instant, then a wide grin broke across his features and he sprinted after Holly, slinging his duffel bag behind him so it would get in his way. He caught up easily and was in front of her by the time they reached Police Plaza, but only just. Neither made much noise, with their years of practice at the Academy, and in the LEP, so most citizens didn't notice the two until they felt the wind as they passed.

They reached the sports complex at roughly the same time, but Trouble tagged the wall first.

"And I have the heavier bag, too!" Trouble bragged. "Not to mention you had a head start."

Holly just laughed, and walked past him, going down to the locker room they'd been in the night before. Today, they were the first two there, and Trouble saw the roster tapped to the door. He grabbed it as he flashed his card at Donovan Markov, standing guard, though he hardly needed to.

Markov opened the door for them and they sat in their lockers again, after Holly hooked up some music (Holiday by Green Day) and Trouble looked at the roster, for lack of a better thing to do.

Rank/Name/Number/Species

Captain/Unknown Scott/2/Sprite

Corporal/Robert Jones/3/Sprite

Private/Trevor Cypress/4/Elf

Corporal/Brett Newt/7/Pixie

Captain/Ash Vein/9/Elf

Captain/George "Pop-Tart" Oak/10/Elf

Captain/Holly Short/13/Elf

Major/Nick Evergreen/19/Elf

Lieutenant/Briar Cudgeon/28/Elf

Captain/Trouble Kelp/30/Elf

Major/Iorek Rish/99/Pixie

It was once again 2 AM, and fairies flooded into the stadium, where the Haven LEP soccer team was already on the field.

Most of the fans had been in the building since 12 o'clock, standing in line, waiting to get tickets.

Down on the field, Trouble stood crouched in front of one of the giant goals. Of course, to an MLS goalie, it would seem pretty dang small.

Trouble's teammates took shots at him, and just two got by. Only the unusually large pixie, Iorek Rish, and the beautiful Holly Short, both with spikes in their hair and spikes on their feet, managed to score on Trouble.

After a few more rounds, Trouble ordered everyone to line up next to each other in front of the goal. They were to sprint from one end of the turf field to the other and back again. Three times.

Trouble ripped off his goalie gloves and his bright yellow long-sleeved goalie jersey- which probably wasn't the best idea, as he had no shirt underneath, and Holly most certainly wasn't the only fairy in Haven (or Atlantis) who found him hot- and threw them into the goal. Holly tried her best not to look at him, though he was right next to her. She slipped up many times.

On a blast from Root's whistle, the entire team sprinted up the field.

When they finished, Trouble noticed that a lot of cameras were pointed at him, and smiled. He turned to Holly.

"Sorry, that probably wasn't the best idea."

Holly smirked at him and- although Root and a few hundred (at least) people were watching, so it was probably a bad idea she'd get yelled at for later- kissed Trouble full on the lips.

He pulled Holly closer to him, and both elves completely forgot the world around them. They didn't notice the whistles, cheers, or jeers from the teammates and fans. They also missed- along with most people, who were watching the couple in front of the goal- the huge grin on LEP Commander Julius Root's face.

They broke apart slightly, panting again, and stood on the field, covered in each other's sweat, before the remembered where they were. With an impish smile, Holly twisted out of his grip and tossed Trouble his gloves and jersey, only to have the jersey tossed right back. She looked at Trouble- he mouthed 'Leave it.'

He put the gloves back on and took more shots from his teammates, and got come loverly bruises on his chest, stomach, and arms.

After some more sprinting, passing, shooting, and just plain having fun, Haven's practice hour was up. Captain Markov and four other fairy guards escorted the soccer team back to the locker room, just as the Atlantis team was being led up (the locker rooms were below the fields) by other guards on the opposite side of the field.

"Trouble, what the heck?" As usual, it was Nick Evergreen, laughing his head off as they left the stadium. Trouble just smiled and pulled Holly closer to him, his arm around her shoulder.

"What, that was about Holly? You wanted her to make out with you in front of hundreds, _thousands_, of people?"

"Actually, I was getting hot. Temperature-wise," Trouble told little Brett Newt.

Newt shook his head, turning away. "Nick, play _Haven Underground 2_ with me."

Evergreen went and joined the young pixie, Holly and Trouble went back to their lockers, as did a few other players, and about half the team watched the _Haven Underground_ match.

Root walked in. "You're down 1-0. You _looking_ for a repeat of the last three years? I'm not."

This was an unusually long speech for the commander, and Trouble told him so on his way out of the locker room.

Root shrugged and pushed his son out the door.

Trouble caught up with his teammates and passed them, heading for the front again. As captain, it was his job to excite the fans. He was the captain on every team except baseball. That's because the baseball captain was…

"Go, Trouble," the guard said.

Trouble ran ahead into the packed stadium, with his team hot on his heels. Unlike with basketball, music was already playing (Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous by Good Charlotte) and the crowd was screaming long before they saw Trouble's spiked hair.

Trouble, once again in his yellow goalie jersey, sprinted onto the field and did something no one expected- jumped, flipped himself over to land on his hands, tucked his legs in, and did a somersault, and was up running again without even the slightest pause.

Holly took a soccer ball and passed it to him, chest high. He trapped it, let it drop, and kneed it up again. He backed up, let it bounce once, and then booted it into the net.

He ran for the same net and slid into it to grab the ball, scrambled to his feet, and chucked the ball at Evergreen, who slammed it back with- a spinning kick?

Trouble dove to his right, just catching the ball with the tips on his fingers. He pulled it to his chest, fell, somersaulted again, and stood, grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear.

It was crazy, but it was soccer.


	11. Trouble

**A/N: Yeah... I need help. I explain at the end.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Holly, Trouble, Root, or any other publicly recognizable figure. They are property of Eoin Colfer. I do not own the sport of soccer (sorry UKers, but it's soccer to me!).**

In the Lower Elements, soccer (or football) was played 5-on-5, but on a scale version of an MLS field. Lacrosse was the same way. Plus, both sports were full contact, and almost anything and everything could be gotten away with. It was much more exciting this way.

The ref told the players 'Almost anything goes. Good luck.' and put the ball in front of the Atlantis elf, who happened to be one of the two from the basketball team, the one who punched Holly.

Because they were the away team, Atlantis started out with the ball, but Haven would at the start of the second half. The first year they had Mud Men Sports Week, the two 'centers' had tried to win the ball, kicking it and each other, trying to get it to a teammate. The Council decided not to do that the next year (or ever again) when one of the centers was sent to the hospital. A minute later, so was the other.

The quick little elf pushed the ball forward to his right, so it was between him and his teammate. Holly went for the ball, but right as she got to it, she was confronted by three Atlantis elves, the forwards. One in front and one on each side. She was trapped.

"13!"

Holly dove out of the way at the sound of her number, making way for Briar Cudgeon, who came flying (well, running) toward the small cluster of fairies. He went straight for the ball, and the elves just barely managed to scatter in time to avoid him. Briar dribbled up field until he saw Iorek Rish and Pop-Tart on either side of him. He passed off to Rish and fell back to stand near Evergreen on defense.

Pop-Tart ran toward the goal as Rish dribbled around a small pixie defender. In the clear, he took a shot, but the elf in goal blocked it easily and punted it back up field.

One of the Atlantis players, and elfin forward, got a bit of a surprise when he went to get the ball. Right as he got to it, a black and red blur slid at him, knocking the ball away to Holy, and knocking the startled elf off his feet. Nick Evergreen stood up and held out his hand, grinning. "Sorry."

The elf took his hand and Evergreen hauled him to his feet, gently turning him around and pushing him toward Holly with the ball, before jogging back to Briar.

Holly dribbled up field and passed to Pop-Tart, who passed right over a sliding pixie defender, to Rish. Rish trapped the ball and kicked it toward the goal a second time.

Again, the Atlantis goalie stopped the ball and punted it. This time, Evergreen didn't go after it. One of the Atlantis forwards got it and dribbled right around a stumbling Briar. Evergreen sighed and moved between the forward and the goal, but also between him and his teammate, in case of a pass.

Then Evergreen caught a break- the elf tripped. He fell flat on his face and accidentally pushed the ball a tad bit behind him. Evergreen ran after it, not hearing Trouble's yells, drowned out by the crowd as they were.

As soon as he got to the ball, the elf, kneeling on the turf, threw his legs out, knocking Evergreen over. Another Atlantis elf took the ball and dribbled toward the net, Trouble the only one who could stop him from scoring, unless Briar managed to get back in time.

In goal, Trouble felt a bit nervous. And why shouldn't he? It's not good to go down 1-0, not this early, not ever.

The forward shot the ball into the upper-right hand corner of the net. Trouble dove to his left, and the ball brushed his outstretched fingers.

It was enough.

The ball's course changed ever so slightly, and it hit the crossbar. It bounced out and down, toward a steadier Briar Cudgeon. Briar got in front of it, letting it hit him in the chest. The ball fell to the turf and he steadied it with his foot, afterward kicking it toward Major Evergreen. Evergreen passed ahead to Holly. Holly dribbled up field a little, the lifted the ball with her toes and headed it toward Iorek Rish, over a small Atlantis pixie.

The pixie shot off and ran smack into the larger pixie just as he got the ball. Rish just managed to get the ball to Pop-Tart, but Pop-Tart slammed it out of bounds. Root took the starters out, save Trouble, the team's only goalie, a few scoreless minutes later.

Ash Vein and Trevor Cypress went in on defense, with Brett Newt, Robert Jones, and Unknown Scott as forwards.

From the bench, Holly watched as Trouble blocked more Atlantis shots, and as the blue-shirted Atlantis goalie blocked a high shot from Unknown, hovering near the top of the goal. He punted it back up field to a gnome forward, new on the field.

The gnome was surprisingly small and agile, dribbling up field. He passed to a sprite, standing near the goal, as Newt tried to knock the ball away.

Trouble adjusted to this pass, running across the goal. He dove straight across the goal mouth, just inches off the turf, as the sprite went for a low, easy shot.

But it was still a hard, fast shot. It hit Trouble's hands, but went right through them into the net.

Trouble landed with a groan as the Atlantis team ran back to their goal to celebrate the point.

He lay face down on the ground as a ref got the ball from the net and tossed it back to mid-field, at the other ref. Evidently, it really didn't come very close. Newt picked it up and ran it to the second ref, handed the ball to him, and ran back to his spot.

Trouble was still lying on the turf, so Root sent Holly in for Cypress on defense, to make sure he was okay.

Holly jogged onto the field, toward Trouble.

"Trouble, come on. Get up. It's only one goal. We'll… no, _I'll_ get it back. Right now."

She said this kneeling next to him with her hand on his shoulder.

"Trouble," she complained when he didn't react, "you're better spirited when we _lose_. It's only one goal."

Trouble groaned and tried to get up. He couldn't.

"Are you okay?" Holly asked, concerned. She sounded frantic.

Trouble groaned another time and shook his head. "My stomach…. My leg…."

Holy looked at his leg and gasped. There was a puddle of blood under Trouble's left thigh.

Most likely, he'd just had the wind knocked out of him, explaining why he complained about his stomach. But then, what happened to his leg?

"Root! _He's bleeding_!"

The urgency in her voice worried Root. "D'Arvit," he swore, signaling for his medical warlock to go take care of his son.

The guards around the edge of the field circled around Trouble as the warlock flipped Trouble carefully and examined the wound. He looked at Holly, holding Trouble's head in her lap. The warlock's eyes were full of shock, and worry. Holly gulped.

"We have a situation here. And it's not a good one," he told her. Holly nodded, taking Trouble's hand in one of hers and stroking his cheek with her other. To the guards, the warlock said, "Let no one leave the building, or the stadium!"

One of the guards relayed the command into his walkie-talkie and every guard in the building pulled out a Neutrino, heading for an exit. Everyone in the soccer stadium was stuck there, and they were ushered back to there seats. The bathrooms were emptied, and the players were put on their benches, except Trouble and Holly. Workers were sent into the stadium.

Anyone in the building who was outside the soccer stadium was brought to the empty lacrosse field and told to sit in the visitor bleachers. No one was leaving either stadium. Even if they managed to escape from their seats and get past all the guards, out of the stadium, and to one of the buildings three exits (two public, one players and staff), they wouldn't be able to get through them. Foaly had locked them, and as Trouble always said, if Foaly locked a door, then it stayed locked.

So no one was leaving. But why? What had happened to Captain Trouble Kelp?

**A/N: No, seriously. What happened to Trouble? Tell me your ideas in a review. I have a vague idea, but if someone suggests a better one, and I use it, you _will_ get credit, don't worry. Oh, and MMSW will continue after whatever happens happens. So you still have to vote for the last slot on the hockey roster!**


	12. High Security

**A/N: Thanks PuppyBekaCopper () and ThistlenotaRose (AFC) for your ideas!**

**Disclaimer: Trouble, Holly, Root, etc. belong to EOin Colfer and if you can't tell what belongs to me vs/ him, you shouldn't be reading this fic.**

The warlock healed Trouble easily. Though it _was_ a bad injury, and he _had_ lost quite a bit of blood, Trouble would be perfectly fine. Holly and the warlock walked back to the bench with him, surrounded by the guards. They weren't taking any chances.

Root pulled Trouble aside. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"When I landed, I got the wind knocked out of me. For a minute, I didn't even notice the pain in my leg. But when I did, I realized it was so bad, I couldn't move."

They were walking back to the locker room now, to keep the players as safe as possible. For once, concern was all over Root's face. Concern and anger. Always anger.

"When the warlock said something about a situation," Trouble said, remembering, "I panicked. I still don't know what actually happened, but it hurt, that much, I do know."

Root snorted. "Really?" he said sarcastically. Trouble rolled his eyes.

The warlock explained to the guards what happened, and they then discussed who should be investigated.

1. Obviously, not Trouble himself.

2. Not Holly, take her off the list.

3. No way was it Root.

4. Brett Newt, Ash Vein, Robert Jones, Unknown Scott, and Trevor Cypress were all on the field at the time. They couldn't be guilty, and the chances it was even someone on the Haven team were bad.

5. The Atlantis players on the field couldn't have done it.

6. Grub and Trouble's own mother wouldn't have done it.

7. The refs were to busy, and would have nowhere to hide it. They were safe.

That left every Haven and Atlantis fan in the building, the VIP quests, the players from _both_ teams who were on the bench at the time (just because it's not likely doesn't mean it wasn't them), all the guards, and many more.

Oh joy.

In the locker room, most everyone crowded around the TV, looking to start a _Mario Kart_ tournament, Haven style. Each racer's controller was a collapsible chair, steering wheel, and pedals. Two racers went at a time, and the loser was eliminated. Simple enough.

Most everyone, but not Holly and Trouble. No, those two elves went to the black-sheeted bed with the red comforter and pillows in one corner or the locker room. Julius Root and Briar Cudgeon were in a different corner, talking.

Trouble and Holly lay side-by-side on the bed, thinking.

Trouble thought about last Monday, eight days ago (was it really such a short time?), when he'd accidentally made Holly late for work. And he'd kissed her. Then the next day, when she kissed him. Wednesday was the morning of the giant betting session he'd overheard, and the Tree 'mission' at the shuttle port. And that night, he'd slept at holly's apartment. Thursday was when he found out his _commander_, Commander_ Julius Root_, was his _dad_, and when his _uncle_,Turnball Root, the criminally insane man, had kidnapped him and Holly. On Friday, they'd escaped, and gone out to dinner, paid for by a 'very uncharacteristically happy elf.' Saturday they were on the surface looking for goblins. Before the day was out, they were kidnapped. Again. On Sunday, they escaped. Again. Yesterday, they had their basketball game. Ash had gotten slammed into the bleachers. Holly had gotten punched in the gut, making her sick, and because of that, Trouble had screwed the shot at the buzzer and lost the game.

And today… what happened? He still didn't know.

Holly's thoughts weren't nearly as spread out as Trouble's. He was all that was on her mind. Mainly last Monday (their first kiss), today (the kiss on the field), and, above all else, Sunday night (are you gonna make me say it?).

Holly sighed, content, and moved closer to Trouble. He flipped onto his side and wrapped his arms around her waist. She put her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, smelling the sweat and grass- well, turf, but exceedingly realistic turf- of Trouble's goalie jersey. The best smell, though, was Trouble's own. The sweat, dirt, and slight aroma of the surface that came with being one of Root's best combined with the smell of his apartment, which always smelled of food and dirty socks- how else would it smell with two active boys living in it? There was no fragrance Holly liked more.

The Mario Kart tourney was going well. Without Holly, Trouble, Briar, and Root, there were eight players, the perfect number.

The guards had left to bring everyone on their 'safe' list who wasn't already in a locker room to the basketball court. Basically, Grub, Trouble's mom, and the refs.

Now to track down the culprit.

* * *

Briar, Root, and the losers watched the remaining players, Ash, Iorek Rish, Nick Evergreen, and pop-Tart, race, Trouble and Holly lay on the bed, still thinking, occasionally muttering to each other, and the guards tried to figure out which of the nine to ten thousand suspects was guilty.

Because Majors Evergreen and Rish were tentative suspects, Root was unavailable, and Trouble was under orders from his dad to remain in the locker room until told otherwise, Captains Spike 'CSI' Ivy and Donovan Markov were in charge of figuring out who the hell was guilty. And of course, they could be too, like Evergreen and Rish, but _someone_ needed to figure this out!

First, CSI brought all the Haven fans to the hockey rink and had them sit in the stands, surrounded by armed guards the whole time, of course. Markov did the same with the Atlantis fans, bringing them to the baseball diamond.

Then, row by row, fairy by fairy, each person was escorted carefully down to the Atlantis locker room, strip-searched, and given a plain white t-shirt, socks, sneakers, and black shorts. Their own clothes were put in a plastic bag with their name on it, to be looked at again later, just in case. After, they were sent back to the soccer stadium, still under armed guard, where the stands slowly turned into a sea of white and black.

Why were they going to such extremes, you ask? Firstly because the sports complex was supposedly one of the safest places in Haven.

The real reason, however, lies in the three small discs the medical warlock found in Trouble's leg. Each razor-sharp disc was about 2 inches in diameter, thick enough not to snap in half, though still almost paper-thin, and full of an explosive powerful enough to level the entire complex. Above ground, that is. Underground, it would not only level the complex, but also start fires that would eat up the cities oxygen and have to go _somewhere_. The path of least resistance? Right through Police Plaza and into Haven. Plus, what about the rocky ceiling? That would come down. Human seismographs would pick it up, no problemo. An 8 on the Richter Scale.

And if that's just one disc, imagine three.

Bottom line? Someone wanted to destroy Haven, but all they accomplished was booking themselves a cell in Howler's Peak, no matter what their species.

* * *

When Trouble was told he'd been shot with three razors that should have blasted him into oblivion, not to mention, oh, all of Haven, he was silent. He just got real pale and thought about that. Holly put her arm around his waist and towed him back to his bed, wincing as the phone crashed loudly to the floor when Trouble let go.

_Should it really be that loud?_ she thought.

Trouble snapped out of it after a minute and picked Holly up in his arms, carrying her the ten steps to his bed. Thank god Grub was at mommy's for the night.

"Trouble, put me down!" Holly half-ordered, half-whined.

Trouble looked at her and shook his head ever so slightly, grinning.

He sat on the edge of the bed, then lay down, so Holly was on top of him. He started to kiss her collarbone, up her neck, along her jaw, and finally, her lips.

Holly tugged off Trouble's shirt, breaking the kiss at the last second, finding his lips again before his shirt even hit the floor.

"I love you," she said into the kiss.

"I know," Trouble replied, pulling back slightly. "But no one could love more than I love you."

**A/N: I know the ending of this chapter sucked, but think about how else it could have ended...**

**Does anyone mind if I don't post the rest of the soccer game, and just give the final score and a _few_ details in the next chapter, before we start lacrosse?**

**PuppyBekaCopper suggested razors half-burried in the feild. ThistlenotaRose said something explosive in the ball. I was thinking softnose (I know, very unoriginal.) So I combined the three!**

**And one more thing. Don't forget to vote for the last slot on the Haven hockey roster! Only three people have, and they've all voted for different players! (That's all your getting out of me right now.)**

**Please review!**


	13. Lacrosse

**Disclaimer: Eoin Colfer owns the main characters. You know who I own. There are to many to list here. (again, I'm sorry there are so many, I hate to do it, but at least I have alot of OCs to choose from for other stories if I ever need them)**

Trouble woke up Wednesday and instantly thought three things:

Yesterday, I was shot with razor-sharp discs that should've flattened Haven,

I wonder who did it?

And

We won.

Late that night, having captured the criminal and his accomplice, they had finished the game.

* * *

Trouble jumped high to his left and caught the soccer ball, which he then punted up field towards Holly. Holly passed to Evergreen, who Root had put in at forward for the first time.

Evergreen dribbled in, took a shot. It hit the crossbar. Holly headed it in before the goalie could adjust. 10 minutes later, it was over.

Pandemonium.

* * *

So the week was all tied up at one, with Atlantis winning basketball 40-42, and Haven capturing soccer, 2-1. Tonight, someone would hold lacrosse and take a lead. If the same team won baseball, they won it all, no matter the outcome of hockey.

Trouble rolled over at looked at the clock. He groaned- it was only eight PM. He got out of bed when he realized he wasn't going to fall asleep again. Searching his drawers he found some clean clothes, dressed, and left a note for Holly on the kitchen counter, which, amazingly, was clean.

_At Police Plaza. Meet me there when you're ready._

_I've got my stuff._

_Love,_

Trouble

Trouble jogged to the bathroom, spiked his hair, and left, his lacrosse gear slung over his shoulder, goalie stick in hand.

He staggered tiredly to Police Plaza and set off for his dad's office, knowing he'd find him there.

Sure enough, Root was sitting behind his desk when his son came in and dropped his gear by the door.

Root glanced up briefly from an e-form he was completing. "Yes?"

"Who… who s-shot me yesterday?" Trouble choked out.

Root looked up again, his eyes locking with Trouble's. "I'll give you one guess."

Trouble thought hard for a minute. "Ian Dogel," he stated confidently, naming the deranged, power-crazed pixie he'd nabbed on his first-ever Recon mission.

Root nodded. "The idiot said he wanted to rule Haven, and thus, the Lower Elements. Said he was gonna be the 'savior after the disaster,' thought it had a nice ring to it. Never realized he'd be dead. Had some moron gnome with 'im, too."

Trouble nodded his understanding. "I used to be best friends with the kid, too. This is all my fault. He wouldn't be power-hungry if it weren't for me."

"Drop it, Trouble," Root ordered. There was no one in the LEP who didn't know the story. He changed the subject. "Get that stuff out of here." He pointed to Trouble's equipment bag. "Do you _ever_ air that?"

Trouble grinned. "You've never been in my apartment, Dad. Maybe you should visit sometime," he suggested.

"Maybe…" Root trailed off. Trouble took that as a dismissal, picked up his equipment, and headed to his cubicle, knowing that's where Holly would look for him. Trouble collapsed into his desk chair, which someone had put a 'Kelp' fan shirt over the back of.** (1)**

He passed the time filling out neglected e-forms. Eventually he went back to Root's office and to his fridge. Root looked up but didn't say anything as Trouble got a nettle smoothie and left again.

Back in his cubicle, Trouble realized he was exhausted. It was only ten.

"Dad!" he yelled down the hall, knowing they were alone in the building. Most everyone was either in bed or at the sports complex, which served as back up to Police Plaza. Foaly even had another Ops Booth, though not as sophisticated as his at Police Plaza. If there were an emergency, he'd get it there and call Root, who would dispatch Recon, Retrieval, or both.

"What?!" came the booming reply.

Trouble jogged down the hall to Root's office again, this time with his equipment.

"Tell Holly I'm in the locker room when she comes. I need some sleep."

Root nodded, not really paying attention. Trouble turned and left through the back entrance, flashed his player access card at a few people, and collapsed on the bad after throwing his stuff in his locker.

* * *

Trouble woke up a few hours later, feeling much better. His teammates were in the locker room, relatively quite. They understood their goalie's need for sleep, even though they didn't know what happened at his apartment the previous night- sorry, that morning.

Trouble propped himself up on his elbows and asked what time it was.

"1:30, Trouble. Get your ass out bed, you and Coach got a press conference!" someone yelled.

"D'Arvit, couldn't someone have woken me up?!" Trouble screamed at them. No one answered as he scrambled out of bed and went to his locker. He changed into his lacrosse shirt and shorts, washed his face, re-spiked his hair as best he could, and grabbed his access card.

The moonometer on his wrist told him he'd taken 15 minutes to get ready, and he had 15 minutes until the two o'clock press conference. He bolted out of the locker room, almost smashing right into Commander- sorry, Coach- Root.

"C'mon, Trouble. Let's go."

The two walked, under the armed guard Root had brought with him, to the conference room. They stood outside the back door.

A minute later, one of the Atlantis elves, whom Trouble now knew was named Zacharias **(Zack-a-rye-s (_the letter 's')_)** Bloodroot, and his coach came out the door. Trouble knew that now they would change the nametags on the table and put out fresh water for the next two people.

Someone opened the door and ushered Trouble and Root inside, closing the door behind them. They walked onto the stage, for they were in a small auditorium, and sat at the table, the guards standing behind them.

Trouble found that there was an empty glass in front of both him and Root, and a pitcher of mineral water between them. They also had the box scores for basketball and soccer, along with the rosters for the first three sports. Trouble's eyes strayed to the lacrosse roster as someone introduced them to the assembled press.

**Rank Name Number Species  
**Corporal Robert Jones 3 Sprite  
Private Trevor Cypress 4 Elf  
Captain Donovan Markov 8 Sprite  
Captain As Vein 9 Elf  
Lieutenant Tyson Kip 12 Pixie  
Captain Holly Short 13 Elf  
Private Chix Verbil 15 Sprite  
Wing Commander Vinyaya 16 Elf  
Corporal Grub Kelp 20 Elf  
Captain Spike 'CSI' Ivy 21 Elf  
Captain Trouble Kelp 30 Elf

Trouble looked up as he realized Root was being asked a question.

"Did you figure out who hurt your goalie, and what happened?"

Root turned his head toward Trouble and pointed with his chin. "Ask him."

Trouble sighed. He hated press conferences. "Yes."

The reporter waited, and, upon realizing that would be Trouble's only answer, slowly sat down.

Trouble pointed to a pixie in the back. She stood up and asked, "Will you be playing tonight? Was there any lasting damage?"

"If I wasn't playing, Iorek would be on the roster, not me. So no, no lasting damage."

"Iorek, sir?" the pixie asked, slightly confused. Iorek wasn't well known. Trouble wished he wasn't, either.

"Major Iorek Rish, LEPreconnaissance."

Root picked someone. "There are rumors that Captain Trouble Kelp"- he gestured to Trouble- "is your son. Is there any truth to those rumors?"

Both elves stiffened. Root glared at the reporter, who suddenly felt like he was facing a troll without even a stink worm to help him. He sat down again.

"This press conference is not for you to go digging into my past. You." He pointed a stiff finger at another reporter.

"Trouble. Is it true you were shot with razor-discs yesterday?"

"Yes. I was."

"I have another question for you."

"Shoot."

"Why did you remove your shirt during yesterday afternoon's practice? Did you plan it to excite the crowd, or was it because of your girlfriend?"

"That's two questions," Trouble observed. "But I'll answer both. I took my shirt off because it gets hot out on the field, especially during sprints. No, it wasn't planned, and it wasn't because of my girlfriend, who does have a name, you know, but that _was_ a bonus. You, in the front."

"This is for the coach. Is there any time we can have a personal interview with a player, or at least speak to them here?"

"Not," Root answered, "unless you get extremely lucky and catch them alone after a game, with me nowhere in sight or mind. Plus, you'd then have to get them to agree. The only reason Trouble is here is because the Council ordered me to bring him."

And so it went on. It got a bit personal at times. A bit? A lot.

"Trouble, you were seen walking into your apartment last night with Holly Short. What happened?"

"This conference is not about my personal life."

"Coach, one of your brothers, Turnball, is a criminal. One of them, Marcus, is dead, killed by Turnball himself. How-"

Root interrupted to say "I know what happens in my own life, thank you very much" and to point out that this conference was not about _his_ personal life, either.

* * *

Walking out two hours later, Trouble was stopped by his two-guard escort as the Atlantis team passed after their practice. They sneered at him and made verbal jabs about the previous night. Glad his dad had gone a different way, Trouble spit at Zacharias Bloodroot's feet. The elf squealed and ran off, leaving Trouble doubled over laughing behind him.

* * *

Trouble pushed open the locker room door and quietly moved up behind Holly, watching CSI and Chix play _Haven Underground 2._ **(2)**

"Hey Holls. How was practice?" he whispered in her ear, slipping his arms around her waist. Holly jumped.

"Frond, Trouble! Did you _really _need to do that?"

"Yes, actually," Trouble informed her, chuckling. He kissed the top of her head.

Holly laughed, looking back at the TV screen just in time to see CSI cross the finish line second ahead of Chix. She twisted lightly out of Trouble's grip, walked over to Cypress, and held out her hand, palm up, tapping her foot. Cypress laughed and handed her some money.

Trouble smiled. Apparently, some betting was going on.

"Trouble! You and Holly, c'mon!" Ash hollered over the chatter and laughing. Trouble shrugged through the group and into the wings.

Ten minutes later, Holly gritted her teeth. "Rematch," she glowered.

"Nope," Trouble said, amused.

* * *

Padded up and ready to rock, Trouble lead his team out of the locker room to what was sure to be an action-packed bloodbath that was supposed to be lacrosse.

**(1) A black t-shirt with 'Haven' on the front in red and 'Kelp' in red above a red '30' on the back. A cheep (price-wise) shirt, many have them.**

**(2) I realize Chix is a sprite, and the controller for _Haven Underground 2_ is a set of wings. The only difference for a sprite is that the attach sensors to their wings and hover.**

**Only four votes! ****/majortrouble****, link at the top. Vote for who you want to take the last spot on the Haven hockey roster! I have _way_ more than 4 readers!**


	14. Family Matters

**A/N: Sorry I took so long! I'm not home on the weekends during the summer. I'll give you advance notice when I can. So... I might not update until next Monday, but the next chapter shouldn't be to hard, so if you're lucky, it could be Thursday.**

**Disclaimer: I own MMSW and lots of characters, but all publicly recognized people, places, and things, belong to Eoin Colfer.**

As they jogged onto the field, the Haven players pushed and jostled each other in such a way that it seemed almost choreographed. Trouble even serenaded Holly while running to the goal, singing along to 'Kryptonite' by 3 Doors Down.

He slowed as he reached the goal and started singing softly, matching the music perfectly.

"If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive and well will you be there, holding my hand? I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might, kryptonite. Yeeeeah!"

Holly laughed. She couldn't really hear him, but she knew what he was doing. She gave him a peck on the lips and ran off, putting her helmet on. Trouble followed suit and jumped around a bit, psyching himself up.

_Whack_.

Trouble stared at CSI, then scooped up the lacrosse ball that had hit the post and flung it back. CSI caught it easily and cradled it, taunting Trouble. He turned, laughing, and started passing it among the team. When Ash threw it to Holly, behind Root, he almost beheaded the commander. Oops.

The elfin referee beckoned to Trouble in front of the goal and made him shake Bloodroot's hand, knowing that lacrosse was the most violent sport. He figured a little none-harmful contact would be nice. To bad it didn't help.

With a grin on his face, Trouble shook Bloodroot's hand, and, as he put his glove back on, spit at the Atlantean captain's feet.

Bloodroot turned and ran back to the defenders and didn't move until Trouble was back in net and his wing had reluctantly wiped up the spit with a towel.

In lacrosse, the ball is placed on the ground between the two centers. They lay their sticks flat on either side of it and when the ref blows the whistle, the centers try to get the ball, or at least knock it to a teammate.

The Haven starters included Holly, CSI, Tyson Kip, Donovan Markov, and Robert Jones. Markov, being the center, faced-off against Bloodroot.

The whistle blew. Markov shot forward, knocking Bloodroot to the turf. He held him down until Holly came from the left and scooped up the ball.

Holly moved up field a bit, then dodged around a pixie and lost the ball. Bloodroot picked it up and sprinted away with it. He flung the ball high and slowed down as his teammate caught it cleanly. Trouble blocked his shot and passed to CSI on defense. CSI ran with the ball and passed to Holly. Holly dodged around the same defender as before, but this time held onto the ball. Not for long. Three steps later, a different defender slashed her, right across her shins, and Holly fell. The defender took the ball and ran onward.

Now, normally, lacrosse scores are in the teens. In the LEP, it was either very few goals were scored or it was around 20 goals per team.

CSI dropped his stick and tackled the guy. Ouch. CSI is on big elf, standing at 3'7". And being in the LEP, he had a lot of muscle on that big frame.

Bob Jones took the ball and flew up a few feet, glad the Atlantis team's sprite wasn't on the field.

Jones coasted over everyone's head and tossed the ball in the net, right over the Atlantis goalie's head. 1-0.

The goalie got the ball and launched it, high over Jones, far, far down field. That's how they played, to ensure the every second was played to the best of everyone's abilities.

Holly got the ball off a bounce and ran it back the other way, tossing it to Kip as Bloodroot smacked her already-bruised shins.

So what'd Holly do? She tackled him from behind, and as she got up she _accidentally_ stepped on his calf, dragging her foot along his leg, drawing blood. Accidentally my ass.

As Bloodroot jogged/limped off the field to get treated for that, Kip was clotheslined. He had a nice shiny red mark on his throat, so Chix went in for him. That's how they played lacrosse in the Lower Elements.

Vishby (yes, it's Fishboy!) ran the ball up, passing to an elf on the wing, who passed to another elf coming up slightly behind him.

The elf ran, jumped, and spiked the ball over Trouble's head. Or rather, where his head should be. Trouble jumped and the ball smacked into the cage of his helmet, leaving a nice ringing in his ears as CSI grabbed the ball and passed to Markov. Markov to Holly. Holly to Jones. Jones to Chix. Chix back to Holly. Stick to Holly's gut.

Markov vaulted over Holly, kneeling on the ground, and scooped up the ball, but couldn't get it to stay in his stick. A defender took it, passing again to Vishby. Vishby passed to Bloodroot, back from his healing. But before he could get anywhere, everyone in the stadium heard a giant _crack_. That would be Holly's helmeted head colliding with Bloodroot's. Dazed, Bloodroot left again, and Ash took Holly's place, who was taking her helmet off long before she got to the bench.

Vishby picked up the ball, which had gone flying, and ran it in. Despite Chix and Jones on defense, he scored. The quarter ended a minute later, score tied at one.

"Frond, I don't remember it being quite this bloody last year," Trouble said to the team, sitting next to Holly.

"Well, last year there _was_ the time you hit the ref in the head with the butt end of your stick because you disagreed with a call," Holly reminisced as Trouble put his arm around her shoulders, taking off his helmet.

"The call when he said it was a goal, but I had caught the ball way outside the net?"

"No, when you got in trouble- sorry- for hitting him because you disagreed with that one."

They laughed, remembering.

Then someone dumped a cooler-full of ice water on their heads.

Holly being Holly jumped up, whipped around, and broke CSI's nose.

"Ow."

Holly glared at him, then broke out laughing, prompting laughter from the rest of the team.

The Atlantis team was having a bit less fun.

While his players watched the haven team enviously during the short break, their coach yelled at them. No one really understood him, he was so mad, and they were wondering if he was Root in disguise.

Five minutes into the quarter, Root sent in Wing Commander Vinyaya, Grub Kelp, and Trevor Cypress. Jones, Chix, and Markov came out.

It didn't take long before those on the field wished they were still on the bench, or, better yet, in the stands. Grub had only gotten the ball once, but already he'd been tackled, punched, kicked, and _bitten_.

Vinyaya picked up the loose ball and ran down field, twisting and twirling like a professional dancer, and slipped behind the goal. She faked to the left, then went right. In lacrosse, this should be easy enough to recover from, as the goalmouth isn't very wide, but Vinyaya came around front and shot the ball past the goalie, earning Haven a 2-1 lead.

The deafening roar of the fans, if possible, got louder. Most of the fairies on the bench had put in sonic filter sponges, but those on the field weren't so lucky. Because they had to hear the ref's infrequent whistles and their teammates, their earplugs were on the bench.

Trouble blocked a shot with his leg, leaving an enormous red mark that rapidly became a painful bruise, even for Trouble.

Vinyaya got the rebound and scurried away, passing to Cypress on the left wing. He ran down the field, passing back to Vinyaya, who jumped over an upright pixie, whipping the ball at the net in mid-air. It hit the goalie in the chest- so did Cypress. This was perfectly legal, but only if Cypress got up as quickly as he could, or it was goalie interference. He jumped up, but the goalie was still on the ground as Vinyaya pushed the ball into the net with the head of her stick.

Sprinting back the other way, Cypress was hit in the back of the head with uncanny accuracy. Holly went in again.

Bloodroot picked up the small ball as Cypress stumbled away and dodged away of a hacking Captain Ivy.

Meanwhile, on the bench, Cypress turned to Markov. "If CSI becomes a major, what will we call him?"

Markov couldn't hear him. He didn't even notice.

Understanding brightened Cypress's eyes as he put in his own sonic filter sponges.

Grub was standing near Trouble in goal. "…Mommy said, Trouble!"

"Grub, damn it, leave! Go hit somebody or something!" Trouble demanded, his eyes never straying to his brother. Good thing, too.

Bloodroot and Vishby came barreling down field, CSI and Vinyaya trailing them and Holly not far behind. Suddenly Bloodroot stopped, pivoted, and ran straight at Vinyaya. That two collided, and CSI went to help Vinyaya. Holly stopped to punch Bloodroot in the face and Grub, sensing that he could pretend to be hit and get off the damn field, went and joined the group as two more Atlanteans did. Vishby and Trouble were alone.

Vishby whipped the ball at Trouble, hitting him in the arm. The ball deflected into the net.

Ignoring the pain in his body as though it weren't even there, Trouble took the ball and ran. Everyone on the field except him and the opposing goalie was in the fight now, but the goalie was so absorbed in it he didn't notice Trouble until he felt the wind of his passage. By the time he turned around, Trouble had already scored, making it 4-2, Haven. The goalie shrugged and dropped his stick, then literally jumped into the fight.

Because the Atlantis goalie was the only could legally get the ball out of the net, Trouble ran down to the blur of green and yellow, black and red, throwing hi stick like a javelin toward the net before tackling Vishby, who was about to punch Holly.

By now, the security guards were starting to come onto the field, so Trouble took Holly's hand and led her back to the Haven bench. The warlock quickly healed a couple of bruises and small cuts on Holly, but when he reached for Trouble, the young elf jumped up and got a water, which her drank deeply from. He picked up the helmet and gloves he'd discarded and walked over to his dad. But wait a minute… Root wasn't alone. Trouble inched closer, listening carefully. He put his things down again and moved forward, trying to make out the words.

"You told me…"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." That was Root.

"Sorry? Sorry?! You've said that before. Where's the proof?"

"Listen to me. I know what I said to you, and I truly and sorry. But I'm more sorry that I had to make that promise. That never should have happened. Trouble is one thing, but… being stupid is another. That, that was just plain stupid."

Trouble grabbed his things and turned away, not wanting to hear more. Root noticed, as Trouble's helmet _clunk_ed against the cement wall separating the fans from the field. Root spared his guest one more fleeting look, begging. At a nod, he went after his son.

"Trouble."

The younger elf kept walking.

"Trouble!"

He put on his helmet.

"Trouble, please." Pleading.

Trouble jogged onto the field without a backwards glance. The fight had been broken up, so Trouble went to the net to grab his stick. He didn't need to, as the half was over, and if he left it on the field, someone would bring it to him. But he needed to get away. Get his act together.

Unfortunately, because he waited, everyone was in the locker room already, but that probably didn't include Root. So Trouble grabbed a pair of those handy armed guards to escort him to the locker room. He instructed them not to leave his side until he was inside the locker room, no matter what the commander said, unless, of course, he threatened to fire them. Then they could leave. The two didn't budge an inch when Root tried to talk to his son. He gave up, and Trouble endured half time.

At the start of the second half, Holly was sitting on the bench, watching Trouble silently and solemnly play, and wondered what was wrong. She had been talking to Cypress, and so hadn't noticed Trouble eavesdropping.

By the time Root put her in at defense, hoping she'd talk to Trouble, there were only five minutes left in the quarter, and Haven was down, 6-5.

Holly jogged onto the field and slashed Bloodroot, who dropped the ball. She picked it up and tossed it to Chix, who flew up and away. Holly got closer to the net. Trouble noticed and started thinking up ways to distract her. Fortunately for him, Atlantis kept the pressure on, and Holly couldn't even say 'hi'.

To avoid Root during the break, Trouble joked around with Ash and the sprites, scanning the stands for potential dates for the three.

The ref's whistle blew, and Root put Holly back on offense. She scored, knotting the score at six.

The score stilled tied with five minuets left, Holly, Markov, Vinyaya, CSI, and Cypress were on the field. Vinyaya ran up the right sideline and crossed the center of the field. She passed to Holly, about ten feet in front of her to the left. Holly passed to CSI, who threw the ball to Markov. Cypress bolted to the net, and CSI passed to him. The Atlantis defenders were trying in vain to catch the four elves and the pixie, but they ended up tripping over their own feet.

Cypress tossed the ball over an elf's head to Markov, now behind the net. The pixie ran around to the right side of the net and passed to Cypress at the left post. His shot was blocked, mostly by luck.

Haven continued to apply pressure, but overtime was threatening.

Holly slipped right between two elves and dodged a pixie, then passed to Cypress. He passed back. She shot, and the net just above the goalie's head bulged. With just seconds left on the clock, the Atlantis goalie walked away. When he got to the edge of the field, the horn blared and Holly completely disappeared under a pile of black shorts and red shirts. Even Root was smiling. Sort of.

It was a happy moment.

"Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon gives Haven their first ever lead in Mud Men Sports Week. Pretty impressive, Captain," Trouble teased.

Holly punched him in the arm.

"Ouch. Assaulting an officer. Maybe I'll press charges."

Holly flicked on her bedside light and looked at him so Trouble could see her roll her eyes.

They'd been lying on Holly's lower bunk, side-by-side, trying to sleep, for an hour when Trouble's cell phone rang. He got out of bed and realized he was still wearing jeans. That certainly couldn't be _helping_ him try to sleep. As he answered the phone, he undid his belt and slipped his jeans off, leaving his t-shirt on. "Hello?" he asked, walking out of the room to the kitchen.

"Trouble, we need to talk. Please."

Trouble sat down on a stool at the kitchen table. "So talk," he said coldly, wishing he'd looked at the caller ID.

"No. We need to talk face-to-face, Trouble. Where are you?"

"In the Lower Elements. I'll even say I'm in Haven City."

"Trouble, please. Why don't you come to my apartment?"

"Root, no." he hung up and put his head in his hands.

"What'd he want?"

Holly had been listening. She hadn't heard much, only what little Trouble had said, but she'd also heard his tone and 'Root'.

Trouble sighed, looking up. "Don't worry about it."

"Trouble…."

"No, Holly."

It was Holly's turn to sigh. "Okay, fine. C'mon."

She turned and walked back to the bedroom, fully aware that Trouble wasn't following her.

Ten minutes later, Trouble slid into bed beside Holly.

"I'm sorry."

Holly nodded and turned around, burying her head in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and even when sleep eventually came, he couldn't avoid Root.

**A/N: Who _doesn't_ know who Root was talking to? It's okay if you don't get it :)**


	15. Baseball

**A/N: Enjoy! I'm gone for the weekend, probably won't be able to write much, so don't expect an update for a while. Definately can't get on the computer until late Sunday night or on Monday. Don't forget to review! (make my weekend special!)**

**Discaimer: I own what I own, and what I don't own, Eoin Colfer owns. I own what he doesn't own.**

This time, it was Holly who woke up first. She could sense, even as _she_ slept, that Trouble wasn't sleeping well, and knew he needed to be left alone, but now Trouble's dreams had stopped, at least. Holly was perfectly willing to let him sleep right through the baseball game, but knew she'd be killed.

At noon, Holly woke Trouble up. He silently got ready, spiking his hair, eating quickly, and dressing hurriedly. He grabbed his equipment bag and followed Holly out the door.

* * *

Trouble walked though the locker room and grabbed a clipboard from the dugout. It had the roster on it, and he was determined to distract himself.

**Position Rank Name Number Species  
****P** Major Nick Evergreen 19 Elf  
**C** Captain Trouble Kelp 30 Elf  
**1B **Commander Julius Root 46 Elf  
**2B **Lieutenant Tyson Kip 12 Pixie  
**3B **Private Chix Verbil 15 Sprite  
**SS **Captain Holly Short 13 Elf  
**RF **Corporal Lili Frond 5 Elf  
**CF **Captain Ash Vein 9 Elf**  
LF **Corporal Fern Green 25 Elf**  
EX **Wing Commander Vinyaya 16 Elf**  
EX **Captain Spike 'CSI' Ivy**  
EX **Corporal Brett Newt 7 Pixie**  
EX **Captain George 'Pop-Tart' Oak

When he finished that, he looked around the dugout. Finding nothing else of interest, he hung the clipboard where it had been and walked back into the locker room. He turned around again when he saw Root.

Naturally, Root followed Trouble out onto the field. Trouble walked to first base. "This is where you'll be making your plays tonight," he said, for lack of a better way to start. He kept his back to Root. "But me? I like the dirt." He was referring to the fact that he played catcher. Trouble knelt in the dirt and ran it through his fingers.

"And?" Root said. Trouble stood up and dusted off his hands.

"And so we need to cooperate, 'captain.' I believe you wanted to talk?" Trouble turned, looking at Root for the first time.

Root flinched at the title 'captain,' as it again reminded him of the 'C' stitched onto his Haven baseball shirt, and his position on this team. He sighed. "Yes," he answered finally. "Trouble, what did you hear yesterday?"

"I heard my mum say 'you told me' and the you apologized. She wanted proof and you said you really were sorry, but more sorry that you'd had to promise. Then you said something about trouble being one thing, but 'that' being stupid, or something."

Root was relieved. He wasn't sure he wanted anybody, let alone his son, to know about the beginning of the conversation he'd had with Trouble's mother.

"Trouble, do you know what I promised her?"

"Yes. You made the promise when I was thirty. You said you'd protect me an' Grub. You'd keep us in Police Plaza as often as was possible without it becoming suspicious or us getting mad. I heard you say it. I was outside the kitchen door," Trouble admitted.

"True, but that's not what we were talking about. See, it was more than one promise we were 'discussing.'" Trouble snorted at his choice of words. Root ignored him.

"I promised never to tell you you were my son unless she was there and okayed it, and the same for Grub. I promised that I would never tell anyone else that I was your dad, either. I promised to protect you, like you said.

"And I promised that I would _never_ leave your mother, and of course, I felt worse when I found out she was burdened with _two_ LEP-bound sons, not just one. I knew when you were born, just looking at you, that you would join me in Police Plaza some day. I was in shock when Grub wanted to join the force, and when he got accepted into the Academy."

Trouble nodded. He had been to. He still was.

"But I broke all those promises. Foaly, Vinyaya, and Holly know, not to mention you and Grub. And now, the rest of Haven knows. It was in this morning's newspaper. 'Commander's 'Long Lost' Son Famous Captain Kelp?' They referred to the fact that I used to have pictures and things of a young boy in my desk. At one point, I even had a toy truck that said 'Trouble' in sloppy little boy letters on the side."

"Why Trouble, why not-"

"I called you Trouble since you were eight months old. You were already getting into everything, and, in trouble. So you took to writing 'Trouble' on your toys as soon as you could form the letters.

"Anyway, at yesterday's press conference, they saw our reactions when they asked about the rumors."

"What were you saying," Trouble started, "at the end yesterday, about trouble being one thing and 'that' being stupid?"

"Trouble with a capital 'T', as in, you," Root explained. "You were one thing. But coming back twenty years later? Conceiving Grub? Like I said, that was stupid. Irresponsible. I knew I wouldn't stay, no matter what I said."

Trouble sat in the grass, thinking about what his dad had just told him.

Root took a knee next to Trouble and put a hand on his shoulder. "Skip practice. You've got a lot on your mind."

Trouble nodded, so Root gave him a quick hug (who knew Root could show affection in a public place?) and walked away.

A little while later, fans started streaming into the stadium from the lobby and the Haven team came onto the field, so Trouble went and sat in his locker for a few minutes. He wondered if he should talk to his mom. It had been almost a year.

He was about to grab his cell and call her, but instead he grabbed his catchers' mitt and jogged onto the field for practice.

* * *

When Atlantis took the field at three, Trouble sat in the dugout, away from the locker room door. But Root came out and sat next to him anyway.

"I'm sorry, Trouble. I didn't expect you to hear any of that conversation. I didn't want you to hear it."

A single tear slid down Trouble's cheek. Root saw and left, patting Trouble on the back. A minute later a thin but strong arm was around his shoulder. Trouble looked up to see Holly sitting alongside him. She smiled a soft smile, gave him a hug, then stood up and turned to face him. Trouble lifted his head in time to see her face. She looked repulsed. "I didn't know men in the LEP _cried_!" Sounded repulsed, too.

Trouble smiled and got up. He put an arm around her waist and the two walked back into the locker room. Evergreen being Evergreen, whistled. Chix tried to ignore them. He was still jealous. Captain Trouble Kelp could have any girl in Haven, Atlantis, or on the _surface_ **(A/N: you know it's true)**, and of course he took the one Chix wanted most.

Trouble sat on the couch facing the TV and pulled Holly close to his side. Chix, desperate to impress Holly, despite Trouble, challenged Lili Frond to a _Mario Kart_ race. He lost. He challenged Fern Green. She beat him, too. He decided to give up before he looked worse.

"Hey Chix! Did you ask out that sprite from Section 106 yet?" Trouble called, loud enough for everyone to hear. They all stopped talking and looked at poor Chix.

"Yeah," he said, blushing.

"What'd she say?"

"She was gonna say yes, damn it, I know she was! But then Jones tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around. He asked her out… and she said yes." Chix dropped his eyes to the plush red carpet while the team laughed. Trouble decided to leave him alone.

"Hey! Root! Why did Foaly name that new shooting game _So You Want To Be An LEP Officer_?" Trouble inquired. "It sounds like a Mud Man game show."

"I was wondering the same thing," Root said, picking up a fake Neutrino and putting on the helmet. Chix swapped the games out. "Let's find out."

Trouble picked up the other gun, jamming his helmet on his head.

The two elves stationed themselves in front of the TV as Chix started up the game, and they quickly figured out the name.

The helmet acted as speakers, so you could listen to the people on screen, and your opponent could hear the people on their half of the screen. It had a clear visor and a microphone, so you could talk to the virtual People. It also made you feel like a police officer.

Each half of the screen looked like the visor of an LEP helmet, with all the icons and data.

You started in Commander Root's own office, and a very realistic Root gave you a mission. Points were awarded for various things, including speed and quality of the job. The person with the most points wins.

Root got sent (by himself… weird) to a surface to capture three goblins. Trouble had to track down a gnome in the city and bring him back to Police Plaza for questioning.

The game was awfully true to life. At one point, on his way to the chutes, Root saw Holly talking to Major Evergreen and Captain Vein. Trouble saw himself strolling through Haven. Looking at the two moonometers on-screen, they were different by about five hours. According to Trouble's, he wasn't supposed to be at work yet. Rather, walking to work. Foaly was good.

Trouble even had a conversation with himself, before the virtual Trouble had to leave to avoid Root's fury.

_This game is pretty fun_, Trouble thought, _even if this _is_ what I do for a living…_

In the end, Root got 376 points, and Trouble 765. Looking at the list of reasons they got points and the amounts for each, they realized Trouble had been much more polite throughout the whole thing, earning him loads of extra points.

As he looked through the 'global' high-scores, Trouble realized that not only had he placed 89th over-all, he was the only LEP officer in the top hundred, of fifty or so who'd played the game. A bookseller had the top spot, Trouble observed, looking at the list of jobs people had. Reading the scores, he also noticed he would drop out quickly, no doubt about that. The game had only gone on sale yesterday.

Watching Chix and Lili play, as Chix again tried unsuccessfully to astound Holly, Trouble sat on the couch, Holly's head resting on his shoulder. Trouble was thinking about the huge parties there would be if Haven won tonight. No doubt there would be police called away from their party at Police Plaza.

But if Haven lost, they go into the hockey game tied with Atlantis. Winner takes all. Hockey had always been Haven's weakest sport, and last years win was the biggest surprise of the year to most officers.

Then, Saturday night would be the players banquet. All Haven and Atlantis players would be there, as would the Council and most LEP officers. All the awards would be given out, including two MVP awards, one for each team. Those were voted for by the public **(A/N: on my pro!).** The banquet would be broadcast to homes in both cities, and there would likely be parties. Again. LEP officers would be called away. Again.

And on Sunday, try-outs. Trouble wasn't even sure what the point of try-outs was. The rosters almost never changed.

Trouble was brought back to the locker room at a yell of 'dinner!'

* * *

6 AM. An hour before game time, and the Haven team was dressed and anxious.

As the home team, they would bat second, so they brought batting helmets and bats into the dugout, and subsequently threw them in the direction of Briar Cudgeon, playing batboy (with a shirt to prove it). Then they stormed the field to roaring cheers from the fans.

Trouble, in his clad in his black catchers' equipment, took a ball and autographed it, then launched it into the stands. Lili Frond, not one for hats, signed _that_ and tossed it into the crowd.

Trouble realized 'Welcome to Paradise' (Green Day) was playing, and found he _was_ in paradise. Holly was by his side- where else would he be?

**A/N: For anyone wondering, Trouble's equipment is Easton Stealth, and he has knee savers. However, his mask is a Rawling's hockey-style mask. He has shoulder caps on both arms of his chest protector.**

**Don't forget to review!**


	16. Grand Slam, Anyone?

**A/N: So... how's life?**

**(silence)**

**Hey, I was busy! Geez.**

**(more silence)**

**Fine. (crosses arms and pouts)**

**I updated the poll on my profile, vote for your choice for Haven's MMSW MVP (link in summary, AFCers!) And remember, it's not a popularity contest! Vote for who you think actually deserves it. Also! You may want to wait until after the hockey game to vote- that's probably a good idea. I'll keep the poll up as long as possible.**

**Disclaimer: Anyone with a really crappy name belongs to me. Those with good names like Trouble and Julius belong to Eoin Colfer.**

As is often the case at important baseball games, there a ceremonial 'first pitch.' Chairman Cahartez was going to throw it. Had they played baseball in the Lower Elements in his day, Cahartez would probably have been pretty good, but as it was, they hadn't. So with Major Evergreen beside him, along with some fairy guards in their LEP uniforms, Cahartez threw the ball, standing a bit in front of the pitcher's mound.

When the ball hit Trouble's glove, the crowd screamed louder than they were before. Last year, in Atlantis, the first pitch was thrown by a man who'd won a contest to do so. He'd bounced the ball in front of the catcher and hit the pixie in the face. He was a Haven fan, after all.

Trouble, mask less, jogged up and handed Cahartez the ball, patting him on the back as if to say 'nice throw' because it was to loud to actually say it.

Then, with Cahartez in the stands and Trouble's hockey-style mask on his head, the home plate umpire handed him a new ball. He threw it to Evergreen on the mound and sunk into his crouch in the dust. The umpire might have yelled 'play ball' but the crowd didn't quiet down until Evergreen went into his wind-up.

His first pitch went right past the elf in the batters' box, before he was even ready. Strike one. The second pitch was low, and the elf swung, just missing it. Strike two. But the third pitch, Trouble set up slightly outside and about chest-high, signaling for a change-up.

Evergreen threw the pitch, and the Atlantis elf swung so hard he spun himself 180 degrees **(A/N: I do that a lot…) **but he did hit it. Barely. The ball rolled foul down the third baseline.

On the next pitch, Evergreen struck him out, bringing up Vishby. He ripped the first pitch he saw up the middle for a single, but was out on a double play when the next batter hit a ground ball to Holly at short. Holly flipped it to Kip at second who threw it on to Root at first, just getting the batter.

Holly was first up to the plate in the home half of the inning, and she could swear she smelt hot dogs. Disgusting! But nonetheless, this is where she loved to be.

Holly dug in, holding her right hand out to the ump, knowing full well that Bloodroot would pitch when she wasn't ready. When she _was_ ready, Holly put her hand back on her bright green metal bat and faced the pitcher.

Bloodroot sneered and went into his wind-up, delivering a hard fastball inside. Holly jumped back, expecting this, and glowered at the elf on the mound. "Oops," he mouthed.

The next four pitches were either in the dirt or above Holly's head, and she found herself on first base, bringing up Recon's best, Captain Vein.

The first pitch he saw, Ash connected with, hitting a line drive back to the pitcher. Holly dove back to the bag at first. Tyson Kip and Nick Evergreen both struck out as Bloodroot regained control, leaving Holly stranded on first base.

Evergreen struck out the side in the top of the second, and Fern Green, Trouble Kelp, and Julius Root went down one-two-three in the bottom.

In the top of the third, the Atlantis second baseman, a pixie, belted a double into centerfield. Vein threw it back in to Holly, covering second, to hold the runner.

The next batter, a gnome, lumbered up to the plate. Evergreen's first pitch to him was chest-high and outside. With surprising speed, the bat came around and there a loud metallic crack as the gnome made contact.

Fern Green, in left field, was back, at the track, at the wall… She jumped, and the small elf managed to snag the ball.

But the pixie on second tagged up and went to third. Green's throw was just a little to late… and it might have helped if Chix could hang onto the ball.

The pixie was on his feet in a flash, having slid into the bag, and Trouble was screaming for Evergreen to cover the plate as he himself rushed to get the ball. There was no way Evergreen could get there in time, though, so Trouble grabbed the ball in his bare hand and dove at the pixie, running past him, a few yards from the plate. The force of Trouble's tag knocked the pixie down, but it also knocked something away- the ball. The pixie wiggled out from under Trouble as the catcher struggled to get up, having successfully knocked the wind out of himself. Trouble, once on his feet, retrieved the ball, swearing, and replaced his mask on his head with his right hand.

The next batter, also a gnome, but this time left-handed, hit almost the same pitch almost the same distance, but to the opposite field. Lili Frond made almost the same play, in right field. Only this time, a lucky fan got a home-run ball.

Just like that it was 2-0 Atlantis.

* * *

In the dugout, Trouble spit at Chix's feet, disgusted.

"How the hell did you _not_ make that play?!" he screamed. The Root in him was evident.

Chix just shrugged and walked away. Trouble was about to tackle him from behind, but Holly put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. Trouble saw her in his peripheral vision and calmed down a bit, but was still tense.

Lili Frond was up to bat, and Bloodroot was surprised to find her quite good. She had jazzed up her batting helmet with sparkles, and her batting gloves and bat were bright pink. But the first pitch, right down the middle, was whizzing past Bloodroot's ear before he was aware it had reached the plate. Lili was on second before the sprite in centerfield even got to the ball, and third by the time he threw it in.

No matter what happened between Holly and Trouble, everyone knows Chix wouldn't stop trying to impress 'his' (yeah, right) girl. So he swung for the fences, striking out on three pitches, none of which he should have swung at in the first place.

Holly laughed at the look on his face as she dug in and faced Bloodroot. She laughed at the look on _his_ face as she ran to first, having hit a single to left field, and Lili came in, upping the score to 2-1.

Bloodroot walked Vein and hit Kip, bringing up the powerful lefty Evergreen. Evergreen saw the catcher set up high and inside before he looked at Bloodroot, but the major didn't back down. In fact, he leaned over the plate just a bit more than he would normally.

The pitch hit him square in the face, breaking Evergreen's nose and knocking him unconscious. If Bloodroot hit three more batters in the game, or one more in the inning, he would be thrown out.

The med. warlock revived Evergreen, who took his base, scoring Holly and bringing up Fern Green, also a lefty in many ways. She would be a much smaller target to hit, not as willing to step in front of the ball, but still one hell of a tough gal.

And certainly a strong, fast one. The first pitch found it's way into the stands for a grand-freakin'-slam.

6-2, Haven.

After hitting Trouble in the leg (and naturally he limped, refusing treatment), Bloodroot was thrown out of the game. A small pixie took some warm-up pitches before throwing to Root, who hit the first one deep. The left fielder, a fat gnome, got lucky, thrusting his glove straight up and snow-coning the ball. Lili struck out on a change-up, and the Haven defense jogged out.

Trouble, getting hot in his catcher's equipment, was glad they were playing in an air-conditioned building underground, and not in the sun on the surface.

Holly, standing at short **(A/N: haha, oops)** thought Trouble looked a different kind of hit. Actually, she thought he looked sweaty hot, too, but you understand.

Evergreen was getting nervous, and it was evident in his pitching. Trouble set up low and outside for the first pitch to the second batter. He wanted a slider. What he got instead was a fastball down and in. He just barely managed to keep it in front of him, preventing the Atlantis pitcher from stealing second.

On another three pitches, Evergreen walked the second batter of the inning, bring up another sprite.

_D'Arvit. These guys are counting on me, _Evergreen thought. _I can't let them down._

_I should probably talk to Nick, _Trouble realized. _It might calm him down- or piss him off. Maybe not, then…_

Chix's thoughts were on the field, too- well, sort of. _Holly is amazingly hot. I can see why Trouble likes her, but what does _she_ see in _him_?_

_Why is Chix staring at me, then glaring at Trouble? I'd understand if he was only looking at us, but now he's staring daggers at Root._

Holly snapped out of it upon hearing bat and ball make contact. She watched in dismay as the ball cleared the fence. Looking back at Trouble, she sighed and shook her head. Trouble nodded, agreeing.

_This sucks._

Major Iorek Rish, the Haven baseball coach, sent CSI and Vinyaya to the bullpen, next to the dugout. Vinyaya then proceeded to warm up, and CSI proceeded to wish he'd put on his catchers' equipment.

After Evergreen walked the next three batters, Rish took him out, and Vinyaya faced the top of the Atlantis order with the bases loaded.

On the third pitch, the elf hit a dribbled to Vinyaya, who threw it to Trouble, standing on the plate, mask off. He whipped the ball to his dad at first, and just got the double play.

The rule for the runner coming from third on this play is 'slid or avoid,' so he stays out of the catcher's way. However, because Trouble does not need to tag him to make the play, the rule is 'avoid,' because sliding could tangle you up in the catcher's legs.

So of course the pixie ran right into Trouble, shoving him down in the dirt.

Trouble rolled over onto his back and got up slowly, glaring at the pixie, who was still looking at him.

"Wanna fight?" he said.

Trouble growled and tensed as the pixie sprung. Trouble dodged out of the way and spun around as the home plate umpire got the pixie in a full nelson, until his coach came out to escort him to the dugout.

Hard to believe the guys on both teams were actually great friends, isn't it?

**(A/N: Holly25Trouble!)** Vishby, the next batter, hit a high foul ball behind him. Trouble jumped up, throwing off his mask, and got under the ball just in time. He hung on, then tossed the ball toward the mound as he jogged off the field.

Three outs, credit to Vinyaya. The Atlantis rally was over.

The next three and a half innings went by with just one hit- Trouble managed a single in the bottom of the sixth, but was stranded there.

In the top of the eighth inning, Trouble was bruised, battered, and sweaty, not to mention tired, both physically and mentally. And with Haven's on-run lead, he'd have to play his best. Fun, no?

Holly had it a lot easier. She accepted the healings grudgingly, but she still took them, so she wasn't bruised or battered. And she hadn't overheard her parents fighting the night before, either, so she wasn't as mentally worn out as Trouble.

Atlantis's catcher, a pixie, stepped up to the plate and faced Vinyaya. He and the next batter got singles off the first pitch, but the batter after that got a double, scoring them both.

With the score 7-6 Atlantis, the crowd was electric. They could feel a rally coming. Rish had CSI and Evergreen warm up Brett Newt and Pop-Tart, just in case.

Vinyaya shook off a few of Trouble's signs before agreeing on a curveball.

The sprite on second was off on the pitch, but the sprite in the batters' box connected, sending the ball to Holly's left, past the second base bag. Holly dove and missed, and the ball rolled in to centerfield, where Ash Vein picked it up. He threw it in to Trouble, but the run crossed the plate and the other sprite took second.

The next to batters, a pixie and a gnome, were walked, and the gnome with one home run came up. He teed off on the 1st pitch and gave another lucky fan a ball with his second home run of the night.

12-6. Did they have to be so damn good?

Vinyaya took herself out of the game, knowing it was time to quit. Pop-Tart let up two singles, but no runs, to five batters.

At some prompting from Root and reminders that everyone had to play, Rish replaced Trouble with CSI. Newt went in for Chix at third.

The inning didn't go well, with Pop-Tart, Green, and Newt all striking out.

Pop-Tart made up for that, striking out the last three Atlantis batters of the game.

Everybody in the Haven batting order got up once in the ninth inning.

Commander Root led off. On his third pitch, down in the count 0-2, he singled up the middle.

Corporal Frond hit her eleventh pitch with a full count and five foul balls and two called strikes. Her double scored Root.

Corporal Newt hit a dribbler down the third baseline, which advanced Lili on the throw, but got him out.

Bottom of the ninth. One out, runner on third. 12-7, Atlantis.

Captain Short's first pitch found it's way to the wall, a double that scored Lili.

Captain Vein watched two strikes go by before hitting a curveball up the middle for a single. Holly stayed at third rather than risk the out.

Lieutenant Kip had a 3-2 count and started to swing at a low ball. He checked his swing just in time, and the bases were loaded.

Captain Oak struck out after fifteen pitches and many foul balls.

Bottom of the ninth. Two outs, bases loaded. 12-8, Atlantis.

Corporal Green hit a triple on her second pitch, upping the score to 12-11, Atlantis.

This is the point where either the next batter hits a home run and wins the game, or gets out and loses it. CSI was about to become famous.

Captain Ivy was at the plate, the tying run on third. He himself was the winning run.

The first pitch was high and outside. CSI swung and immediately wished he hadn't. The ball wasn't in the strike zone, and, though he hit it, the ball reacted as if bunted. It was an easy out.

I never said he was going to be famous in _Haven_.

* * *

Trouble Kelp lay across his brother's bed, his right leg hanging over the edge, his hands behind his head.

He glanced at the door as it creaked open, to see Holly walk in and lie on his bed, looking at him with longing eyes. He could see it was only a longing for his body heat, his arms around her, at least for tonight, and he complied, crawling wordlessly under the comforter and holding Holly close to him.

"Trubs? What's wrong? Something Root did or said is bothering you, but he said you'd tell me."

But Trouble was sound asleep.


	17. Hockey

**A/N: I'm going to break down this whole day into parts to keep you waiting, okay? Okay! The chapter after the next is when the actually start to play. Oh, while I need to you vote for Haven's MVP (you may want to wait until after the hcokey game is over), I also need you to submit ideas for Atlantis's MVP. Bloodroot? Vishby? What species? A name? Help me out, please! You'll get the credit!**

**Disclaimer: All publicly recognized figures belong to Eoin Colfer. You know the ones I own!!**

Friday morning, the Kelp boys' apartment was still. Trouble and Holly lay unmoving in the bedroom, and even Grub, lying on the couch in the kitchen, was immobile and silent as the grave.

As to why the couch was in the kitchen, even the brothers weren't sure, but it always had been.

As the artificial sunlight shown through the windows at six PM, Trouble rolled slowly over, yawning.

He fell asleep again.

Then, at eight in the morning, a shrill noise woke up Trouble and Holly. Grub was just sitting up as Trouble picked up the kitchen phone. His hair stuck up in different directions, but in some places it lay flat. It was almost comical.

"Hel-hello?" Trouble said, yawning.

It was a telemarketer. He hung up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"You've got to be kidding me," he groaned. "I can feel it, there ain't now way I'm falling asleep again, not right now."

Holly yawned and put some bread in the toaster. "Get me some butter, Trubs."

Trouble did. "You making me breakfast, too?" he whispered in her ear, slipping his arms around her waist.

"No, Trouble Kelp, I am not. You are a grown boy, you can operate a toaster oven," she replied. Following that, she kissed him.

Poor Grub almost puked.

Trouble pulled away and got a bagel. "You bet I can."

As soon as Holly's toast was out of the toaster oven, Trouble's bagel went in. It came out slightly burnt, just how he liked it. Next, he more or less drowned the thing in butter and dug in, dripping butter down his chin.

When the two had left the room, Grub made his own bagel. His was more than slightly burnt, so he followed his brother's example. The butter didn't help the charred thing- could it really be called a bagel?– much.

Meanwhile, Holly and Trouble were looking to pass the time. Trouble stood at the foot of his bed, hands in pockets. "Fight me. Loser makes lunch, and is my- sorry, the winner's- personal slave for the day. Sex included." He smiled devilishly.

"Figures, you can't resist that kind of thing," Holly teased, climbing onto the bed.

"Yup."

He was rocking back and forth. Holly jumped at him when he was on his heels, trying to knock him backwards. But instead of knocking him to the floor, he caught her, his hands flashing out of his pockets, and fell backwards of his own accord, pulling Holly down with him. Her arms were restrained by his.

Trouble flipped over and pined Holly's arms to the floor with his knees. He put his hands on her shoulders and counter to three.

Holly struggled to get free. Trouble wouldn't have it. So to calm her struggling, he leant down and kissed her collarbone. Then he brushed his lips along her jaw- it worked. She stopped moving.

Trouble murmured in her ear, "Three," moved off of Holly, then helped her to her feet.

"So, that was fast. Now what?"

"I'm _your_ slave, Trubs. But I say we get dressed. Here."

Holly threw him his black warm-up suit, with 'Haven' embossed in red on the right chest and 'Trouble' over '30' in white on the left. There were double white stripes down the sleeves from the shoulders, and down the side of the pants. His number was embossed on the left thigh. Holly picked up her own and went into the bathroom, locking the door. Sometimes Grub forgot to knock.

When she went back to the bedroom, both boys were in front of mirrors. Grub was trying to spike his hair like his older brother.

"Give up, Grub," Holly laughed. His hair looked messier than it had when he'd gotten up, and now it had gel in it.

Grub pouted and settled with trying to flatten his hair. Eventually he gave up on that, too, and went to take a shower.

"So…" Holly started, thinking. Eventually, "The three of us look relatively the same. That's scary. I don't want to look like Grub!"

Trouble laughed and turned away from the mirror, hair standing in spikes. "Don't worry, Holls. You're much to beautiful to look like him."

"I suppose it would be hard for _anyone_ to look like Grub. Except, perhaps, his brother or something."

"You little…"

Holly was bent almost double laughing at the look on Trouble's face, but quickly turned and dashed into the couch-less living room to hide behind her personalized Haven hockey bag. Trouble came barreling into the room and almost tripped over his leg pads, which Holly had put in the doorway.

Trouble looked around and saw movement behind Holly's open bag. Chances were good she was curled up in a ball behind it. As he stalked closer, she jumped up and threw her elbow pad at him. He ducked, but she threw the other pad and hit him in the leg.

Racing back to the bedroom in pursuit of Holly, the clocked flashed by in Trouble's peripheral vision. He tried to slow down by turning his feet like he would on the ice, but seeing as he was wearing socks, the sudden slow-down, coupled with his surprise, knocked him right over. He landed on his hard elbows and stomach and turned his head, straining his neck to see over the kitchen table. He got to his feet.

"Hey Holly! Grub! It's almost eleven. Wanna go now?" Trouble hollered, rubbing his elbows.

"Sure. That means I don't have to make lunch. Let's go!" Holly's voice made him spin around, almost falling in surprise again. She'd ducked into the pantry.

The two elves went back into the cluttered (but still couch-less) living room. Upon tossing Holly's elbow pads back in her bag and zipping it shut, they slung their bags over their shoulders. Trouble buckled his leg pads together and threw them over the same shoulder. Grub came out of the bedroom wearing his warm-up suit, though he wasn't on the team this year. Root said he could be the 'equipment manager.' Basically, he carried all the player's extra sticks to the bench and then back to the locker room after the game.

Grub grabbed the four hockey sticks from his brother, holding them out to him. On his way out of the apartment, he almost smacked Trouble in the head with the heavy paddle of his own stick. Trouble growled, but Grub had already left and didn't notice.

* * *

A few hours later, Holly was looking over the roster pinned to the bulletin board outside the open locker room door. She was wondering who would be MVP this year. She fingered her ring.

Inside, Trouble jumped off the couch and landed on Pop-Tart, knocking him to the carpet in the 'lounge' area of the locker room. Holly strolled back in to watch the two wrestle. It was over quickly, however. Trouble had used the same tactic he'd used against her that morning, as far as pinning his arms, anyway. The man's not gay! (**A/N: No offense gay/bi peeps! You rock!)**

At one forty-five, Coach Root (of course, the still called him 'Commander' just in case. No need to have your coach/commander screaming at you before the big game) made them all lace up their skates and grab their gloves and sticks, but he didn't want them in full equipment. Many of them, including Trouble but not Holly, put on black beanies with a red Gnommish 'H' on them, standard headgear for many Lower Elements fairies.

Root looked very much like his players in his warm-up suit and skates, even wearing Trouble's old gloves (from before he played goalie) and holding Grub's old stick. There was a whistle around his neck that set him apart. He instructed Grub to dump a bucket of pucks on the ice and had the players run some basic drills and take shots at the empty net. There were two metal pegs hanging from the top of the net, and you had to try and hit one of them, because Trouble wasn't wearing his goalie equipment. What kind of idiot would want to stop a puck _with_ the equipment on? **(A/N: No offense to anyone out there who plays goalie, but I am too, and I get called crazy for it a lot)**

Trouble's teammates found his shots entertaining, as his left hand was encased in his "Itech" (meaning it was made by elves who'd worked for Itech once upon a time) catching glove, and he couldn't really grip his stick with that hand.

After a little less than an hour, the Atlantis players, in full gear, started filing onto the bench, watching the Haven team. They didn't _really _get to watch, though, as Haven promptly left the ice at the sight of the dull yellow jerseys.

"Captain Trouble Kelp, the famous _Trouble_ Kelp, can't even shoot a hockey puck," taunted the burly defenseman Evergreen. "He's rendered useless, as far as his shot, by a _glove_!" He pointed to Trouble's left hand with his stick.

"My shot's better than yours, Nick," Trouble replied cockily, glancing sidelong at the major. Some of the players muttered their agreement as Evergreen turned a shade of red to rival his commander's. Grub reached out his fist to his older brother, who complied, taking off his glove to bump fists with the little nuisance.

Evergreen was much more an enforcer than a scorer. He was there to hit people and go home. Dive in front of the occasional puck, get some nasty bruises, maybe, but go home without a goal and content.

The banter continued down the rubber-floored hallway to the locker room. Trouble looked around him the whole time, realizing that he'd step in front of anything, a softnose, even, or a Mud Man weapon, to save one of these guys.

Little did he know that he would do just that about one year later.

**Number Rank Name Position S/C**(1)** Species**

2 Captain Unknown Scott F L Sprite  
3 Corporal Robert Jones F R Sprite  
5 Corporal Lili Frond F R Elf  
7 Corporal Brett Newt F R Pixie  
8 Captain Donovan Markov F L Sprite  
10 Captain George "Pop-Tart" Oak F R Elf  
12 Lieutenant Tyson Kip D R Pixie  
13 Captain Holly Short F R Elf  
16 Wing Commander Vinyaya F R Elf  
19 Major Nick Evergreen D L Elf  
21 Captain Spike "CSI" Ivy D R Elf  
30 Captain Trouble Kelp G L Elf  
99 Major Iorek Rish D R Pixie

(1)**S/C:** Shoots/Catches. If they have an R they shoot right handed, meaning that their right hand is lower on the hockey stick. Trouble has an L because his glove is on his left hand- the hand he catches with. (for those of you confused, the 'blocker' Trouble would have on his right hand is not often called a 'glove', because the netted 'catching glove' on his _left_ hand would be called a 'glove')

**A/N: Okay, crap. What was I going to say? Oh well. Please review!**


	18. We Can Do This

**A/N: I realize Trouble's intro sounds weird, because he says 'captain' twice. Oh well... An Trouble's line that has ' ' around it is quoted from the movie Miracle, character: Herb Brooks.**

**Disclaimer: I own the announcer! But I do not own the structure of his lines. I based pretty much this entire chapter off of UNH hockey games. I do not own the major characters, but I do own the ones with stupid names.**

The final game. The most anticipated game. In effect, the championship game. The hockey game.

The rink was dark and the fans were on their feet. Trouble and the Haven team were more nervous than anything, but Atlantis was wound up. Last year, their star goalie had been suspended for the week, but he was back in the net, and, just like everybody else, Vishby expected a win.

Trouble stood in front of his team on the rubber mats leading to the ice from the locker rooms, shifting his weight nervously from skate to skate. A thick black curtain prevented the fans from seeing them and vise versa, but the deafening cheers were crystal clear, which only fed the butterflies in Holly's stomach. Evergreen watched as a guard plugged in a strobe light, and saw the flashing blue light leaking around the edge of the curtain. Every so often, Pop-Tart noticed a flash of bright light as one of the two spotlights roaming the arena whipped past. Kip listened to the clapping of the fans become rhythmic as the music slipped into 'Two Step' by Dave Matthew's Band.

Trouble waited. The song seemed to be slower than ever before. Finally, Trevor Cypress got the go-ahead from another guard in the form of the curtain being yanked back. He rushed onto the ice, hoisting a huge black flag with 'Haven' written on it in red. Trouble charged onto the ice after him with more positive energy than he felt, and the Haven team streamed out after him. For the first time all week, and indeed in the history of Mud Men Sports Week, there was an announcer. Everyone could tell he was a Haven fan himself. "Yoooou're hometown team, Haveeeen City!" He didn't introduce Atlantis, who jumped on the ice when the last Haven player was out. Vishby, in his beautiful yellow and green pads, led them out.

Because they had an announcer, they weren't just going to fool around for an hour before the game, like they normally would. There was only fifteen minutes to game time.

Both teams lined up on their goal lines, Trouble and Vishby in front of their nets. Grub had put the Haven team's helmets on the bench, and Trouble's mask on the back of the net, but Atlantis had theirs on.

The announcer started with Atlantis. When he called a name from the starting line-up, the person skated to the blue line. Simple as that. At the end, he listed the rest of their roster and their coaches.

When he said, "And now, the starting line-up for your Haveeeen City!", Holly could swear the ice was vibrating under her feet.

"At right wing, a right-handed sprite straight out of the Academy... number three, Corporal Robert Jones!" He got louder with each word and held the corporal's name. Then he waited for the noise to die down a bit, back into the rhythmic clapping it had been.

"At center, a left-handed sprite who's been on the force for a dozen years, number eight, Captain Donovan Markov!"

"At left wing, a right-handed elf and Recon's only female, number 13, Captain Holly Short!"

"On defense, a left-handed elf who's got everyone guessing what he'll do next... number 19, Major Nick Evergreen!"

"Also on defense, a right-handed elf nicknamed after a Mud Man TV show, number 21, Captain Spike Ivy!"

"C! S! I! C! S! I!" That was the fans.

"And in goal, a left-handed Recon hot-shot who's more 'trouble' than he's worth, your team captain, number 30, Captain Trouble Kelp!"

The crowed 'bowed down' to Trouble as he skated to the blue line. **(A/N: It's a hockey thing.)**

"Also on the Haven roster: Captain Scott, Corporal Frond, Corporal Newt, Captain Oak, Lieutenant Kip, Wing Commander Vinyaya, and Major Rish." Players skated to the blue line as he said their name. "On the bench with them today is Commander Julius Root, Corporal Grub Kelp, and Private Trevor Cypress. The team medical warlock asks to remain unnamed."

_Smart guy,_ Trouble thought, as the announcer proceeded to, well, announce, the referees names._ No one can ask him to get them autographs unless they recognize him by sight alone. Come to think of it, do _I_ know his name?_

Then he thought: _If we win, I'm sleeping at Police Plaza. If we lose... I'm still sleeping at Police Plaza. Fans will be all over the place. If I so much as open my window, at least five people will crawl through it before I can get it shut. Probably all girls, too. Or gay guys. Of course, I won't be able to get into my apartment in the first place! Geez!_

The announcer finished and the two teams went to their nets for a short pep talk.

Trouble laid his stick on top of the net and slipped off his gloves, leaving them next to his helmet. He looked each of his teammates in the eyes, all the sprites and pixies and elves leaning on the net and each other, wanting to hear their captain. Some were excited, some nervous. Others were clearly looking at Trouble to motivate them.

"Guys," he started, "I don't know what to tell you. So I'll tell you this: This is the best Haven's ever been. You've all been a part of at least on other team. You're all a part of this team. If we win, I'm not playing next year. I'll play until we win it all. Then I'm retiring from it. Maybe my dad- yes, Root really is my dad- will let me coach whoever plays goalie next.

"But no matter what happens, don't give up. I'm proud of each of you. Each and every one of you. You've all worked your ass off for this chance. So whether you have a good day or a bad day, don't forget to never give up. Just because one person isn't doing well, doesn't mean the team can't do well. We're a team. 'The name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back,' guys. C'mon. We can do this."

With that, he turned and skated back to center ice to shake hands with, surprise! Bloodroot.

"Good luck Kelp. Sorry, I meant, good luck, _Root_."

Trouble ignored the comment, turned away, and headed back to his net. Holly was still there. She kissed him on the cheek. "'C'mon. We can do this,'" she quoted.


	19. The First Period

**A/N: 1. Don't forget to vote for Haven's MVP. If you wait until after the hockey game, make sure you vote immediately after reading! I cannot write the banquet scene without knowing who the various awards go to.**

**2. Submit names and species for Atlantis's MVP.**

**3. Give me ideas for other awards and winners.**

**4. Review, lurkers! You must review! The more reviews I get for the rest of this fic, the better the chances I'll write and post a one-shot to finish off the series. Sorry, no Holly, so no H/T.**

**5. Well, actually, I think that's it.**

**Go to: i95.photobucket. com/albums/l150 /doglefox0601 /Hockey/RinkDiagram.jpg (minus the spaces) to see a diagram with various terms used throughout the hockey game.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anybody with a good name. They belong to Eoin Colfer, the amazing man I would die to meet. Now mull that over. Does that make any sense? But anyway, I own the crappy-named ones (and CSI- just kidding! (although I do own him...))**

The referee opened his hand. The puck hit the ice. Markov and the elf on the Atlantis side betted at it with their sticks. It skirted away to Holly, who skated up to the blue line with it before it was poke-checked away.

Markov picked it up again and skated in toward the net, holly right behind him. He drop-passed it to her and veered out of the way just as she wrested it at the net, but Vishby flicked his blocker out and deflected the puck into the corner. One of his defenseman carried it out of the zone and passed to Bloodroot, who carried it up the left-wing boards. He passed to a teammate in front of the net, but Evergreen slid feet-first in front of the puck. It ricocheted off his shin pad and into the corner, where Holly picked it up again.

"Short up the boards, passes across to Markov. Markov skates over the blue line into the Atlantis zone. Into the corner, behind the net. Look at this! The defensemen can't decide if they should go after him or cover his teammates.

Markov passes to Short in the corner. Short passes to CSI who one-times it- blocked in front by Bloodroot."

Just like all the other games, this game was on both TV and radio. For the first time ever, movie theaters had it on, usually on more than one screen, especially in Atlantis, and the only people listening to the radio were driving somewhere- mostly to movie theaters or friends houses, having left the office late.

It was also the first time that every Atlantis fan who had reserved tickets actually picked them up. **(A/N: If you are confused about ticket sales, ask).**

Bloodroot skated to his own blue line before passing to his winger. The pixie managed to get into the slot before Evergreen laid him out. However, another Atlantis player picked up the puck and managed to slip it by Evergreen and CSI to Bloodroot, standing on the other side of the net.

Trouble slid over in his butterfly, desperately throwing out his catching glove, using projection angles to try and snag the puck. Bloodroot's shot went right into his glove, and many of the crowd praised Trouble by bowing again, even as Bloodroot skated into him, knocking the off-balanced boy into the net.

For that, Bloodroot received a punch to the back of the head, courtesy of Evergreen, and the gloves were off. Evergreen was ready to fight, but CSI shoved him down, towards the boards and out of the way. He'd get a penalty for the punch, but if he fought, he'd get thrown out.

Bloodroot's teammates couldn't care less. In fact, then _wanted_ to see a fight. One of them, the other elf from the basketball team, punched CSI, who was forced to defend himself by fighting back.

Bloodroot went after Evergreen again, and soon, years of pent-up anger was leaving the players through their fists, hitting their sometimes-friends. The only ones smart enough to stay out were Lili and Vinyaya. Trouble would have fought if he didn't have a major headache from bloodroot, so he didn't count, and Holly had taken on two fat gnomes.

Before it could get any worse than it was, some guards, including Chix (luckily someone else got to Holly and pulled her away before he could get to her), hauled open the Zamboni doors and jogged onto the ice, wearing Foaly's special anti-slip surface boots, only slightly modified to grip the sheet of ice without leaving marks that could send the puck bouncing unnaturally.

With some force, the guards separated Evergreen and Bloodroot, cuffing the two just in case. The two were thrown out of the game, less than five minutes into it. Hockey fights, however, are common, and they would be allowed to play next year. They also got five-minute majors, which, coincidentally, was the similar rank of the pair. CSI and one of Bloodroot's elfin teammates served the penalties. There were a few other penalties, but they played four-on-four.

The ref held the face-off to Trouble's left. Root demanded Trouble get healed after he almost fell over when an Atlantis d-man took a shot a few minuets later. The puck rolled right into the net before anyone could get to it.

"See what stubbornness does, Trouble?" Root said gruffly. "If you got healed when you knew you needed it, it'd be tied at zero. So much for a shut-out."

Trouble nodded, eyes cast downward.

A minute after the center ice face-off, Tyson Kip got the puck and passed up to Vinyaya. Vinyaya didn't try anything fancy- Root had told the team to apply pressure, so they all charged up the ice, checking defenders harder than was necessary.

With some complicated passing, the puck ended up on Pop-Tart's stick. He wound up to take a slap shot- but a defender dove at him and poke-checked the puck away. One of the Atlantis elves picked it up and skated in on a breakaway. He ruined it, however, by shooting the puck high into the netting over the glass.

The face-off was outside the zone. Vinyaya hit the puck back to CSI, done serving the penalty, who passed to Kip. Kip saucer-passed it over the stick of an Atlantis gnome to Unknown. Unknown and Vinyaya passed it between themselves, skating over the Atlantis blue-line for a two-on-one. The gnome trying to defend against them committed to Unknown early, so he passed one final time to Vinyaya, who one-timed it. The puck hit the near post and slid along, just outside the goal, to the other post, which it hit. It bounced away from the post and collided with Vishby's skate. More accurately, Vishby's skate collided with the puck. The goalie kicked the puck right into the net.

Vinyaya raised her arms high as her teammates on the ice crashed into her. Rock and Roll Part II, commonly known as 'the Hey Song,' played, but instead of 'hey' everyone yelled 'sieve' and pointed at Vishby, irritating him to no end. Trouble hit his stick on the ice, and the Haven players on the bench hit theirs on the boards. Even Root managed a gruff nod.

After the cheers subsided and you could hear yourself think again, the ref dropped the puck between Markov and an elf at center ice. Markov won the face-off and slapped the puck down ice, right on net. Holly raced after it, but was checked illegally and sent sprawling to the ice, sliding away from the puck, and net. Everyone booed. There was no penalty call. (Trouble would protest to the ref after the play was over, but would have no success).

Vishby skated out of his net just enough to grab the puck, and push it down the ice to a forward. He flew up the ice, his teammates like geese behind him.

Holly struggled to a knee, putting her stick on her left thigh and using it to lever herself up. As quickly as she could, Holly limped to the bench.

In all actuality, Holly was fine. But if I warlock healed someone who was in need of it, that person had to serve a two-minute bench-minor penalty. Haven, and doubtless Atlantis, had been doing it all week.

The Atlantis center skated over the blue line and passed back to one of his defenders. Then he and the other two forwards stood in front of the net, screening Trouble. One of the defenders at the point took a shot- it was only stopped because Trouble tried to look under someone's arm and got smacked in the face. In the resulting scramble, one elf lost two teeth, a pixie had his leg cut open, and Trouble got kicked in the head. Twice. Eventually, pure luck wedged the puck under Trouble, forcing the ref to blow the whistle.

Vinyaya won the ensuing face-off and passed back to Kip before glancing at the scoreboard above Vishby, the easiest for her to see. 1-1 with two minutes left in the first.

Kip skated up ice, spinning to avoid a defender, but he was checked into the boards by his own bench and flipped over them, landing heavily. CSI quickly jumped onto the ice as the warlock mover to help Kip.

There was a scramble in the Atlantis end, with about five players pinning each other to the boards, but, at the same time, they were kicking at the puck, trying to free it.

The ref was about to blow his whistle when the puck skirted free. Vinyaya was the only one to notice, and turned to grab the puck. The other four or five along the boards realized the puck was free when the pixie Vinyaya had been holding fell, tangling them all up and knocking them all over.

Before Vinyaya could get off a shot, a defender dove at her, stick outstretched, to knock the puck away. By the time it reached her again, the horn had blown, signaling the end of the period. Vinyaya bent over and picked up the puck, tossing it over the boards into the crowd.

The teams left the ice for a fifteen-minute break, so the Zamboni could resurface the ice.

In the locker room, Trouble took off the top half of his equipment. Many other players did they same, revealing Under Armor, before dousing themselves in water.

After a few minutes, Trouble spoke, sitting in his locker.

"We're skating with these guys. We've kept them to one goal, and that was my fault.

"Who wants to win this more?" he asked, never raising his voice.

The replies weren't very loud either, but they were clear. "Us." "We do." "Haven."

"Who trained harder? Who trained so hard, that even after a year of it, they puked at least three times a week? Every week, all year?"

"Us." "We did." "Trouble."

No one laughed at the comment, and they weren't supposed to. Other people were throwing other names out there.

"So who deserves to win?" Trouble's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Haven." "Us." "This team. Right here, right now." The answers were no louder.

"Right. And who is going to win?"

"Haven." "Haven." "Haven."

Each player answered as Trouble looked them in the eye. Evergreen was sitting in his locker, freshly showered and dressed in his warm-up suit, but he acted no different than the rest of them.

"Don't forget this, though. You are not allowed to think _anything_ along the lines of 'Oh, we still have two periods to win this game. No big deal.' Because it is. We may have two periods, but so. Do. They."

The team nodded and followed Trouble's example, silently donning their equipment. Each player kissed the 'Haven' stitched onto the front of their jersey before slipping it over their heads. They were ready.


	20. The Second Period

**A/N: I've almost finished the next chapter, but it needs typing. Tomorrow or the day after, I hope! Then, immediately after reading that, you _must_ vote for an MVP! I do not want to have to pick one myself! You get four votes, I just hope there are no ties, but I know their will be :) (Holly and Trouble, obviously!) AFCers, the link is in the story description, ers (wow that sounds weird...), just click my name at the top of the page. Oh, and you may be interested in the 'My Fics' part of my profile! It shows two new fics I'm working on, one of which I need help on (not a story, though, a list)**

**For help with various rink terms etc, see this diagram (remove the spaces) i95. photobucket. com/ albums/ l150/ doglefox0601/ Hockey/ RinkDiagram.jpg**

**Disclaimer: I own the people with crappy names, Eoin Colfer owns the people with good names, and I suppose the New Hampshire governer and his wife own Hayden Lynch. (You'll see).**

Trouble skated down the ice, heading for the opposite crease. The fans roared as he moved side-to-side, scratching up the ice in front of the net so it was no longer smooth. Then he centered himself in the net, hit each post once with his stick, then again, and skated up to the hash marks. Turning his right skate, he stopped, flipped his stick over with a twist of the wrist, and smacked each pad once, and a second time, like the posts. Finally, he moved his neck side to side, then bent down and rapped his stick on the ice, three times. Even over the din of the crowd, the sound was very clear. His pre-period routine complete, Trouble rested his blocker casually on his right pad, stick held loosely in his hand, and put his weight on his right foot, slouching.

The elfin referee dropped the puck between Vinyaya and a pixie, and Trouble waited for the pixie to steal the puck off Vinyaya's stick before getting ready, knees slightly bent, hands out in front of him, but elbows not locked, chest up, stick firmly planted on the ice. He moved back with the pixie, keeping the angle between the pixie and the net tight. More accurately, the puck and the net. Trouble was glad, not for the first time, that playing goalie was a load of science and geometry, two things he was very good at.

In alone on Trouble, the pixie fell flat on his face. Holly stood up behind him and yanked her stick out from under his ankle, disgusted with herself. She knew what was coming, and only seconds into the period, too. She skated over to Trouble. "Sorry, Trub," she apologized glumly, hanging her head.

"Don't be," Trouble replied soothingly. "It's fine."

Holly nodded, not reassured in the least, and headed off the ice.

The pixie was awarded a penalty shot. The rest of the two teams stood on the bench or straddled the boards, waiting to hop back on the ice. They left Trouble and the pixie, and Vishby, watching from his net.

The little guy stood on his own blue line, back to Vishby. The puck was at center ice. One of the refs talked to him, and another skated over to Trouble. "Don't leave your crease until he touches the puck."

Trouble nodded, checked his posts with his stick, and leaned back against the crossbar, waiting. The third ref blew his whistle and the pixie charged. He picked up the puck- Trouble came shooting out to the hash marks, waiting. Slowly, he started to back towards the net as the pixie came forward.

Suddenly, Trouble shifted his weight. He threw himself forward, knocking the puck off the pixie's stick with his own. A stroke of good luck, and timing, allowed the move to work. Had he missed, the goal would be wide open for an easy goal.

The face-off was held to Trouble's left. Jones batted the puck to Holly, who backhanded it to CSI behind her. They worked their way up the ice with care, taking plenty of time.

Kip ended up with the puck behind Vishby, who looked over his shoulder, through the netting. Kip faked right and passed to Holly, two feet to his left. Holly passed across the net to Markov, who slapped the puck past Vishby's skate for a goal.

His teammates jumped on him, celebrating their first lead of the game.

Vishby smacked his stick across the crossbar, hard enough to snap it in half. He threw the two pieces on the ice and squirted his face with the water bottle tied to the net. One of his teammates brought him a new stick and handed the broken one to a coach on the bench. That same player had to serve Vishby's two- minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

The next few minutes were uneventful- a few shots, passes, and checks, but nothing spectacular.

Not until Trouble was facing a defender at the point. The pixie brought him close to the post by skating down into the corner. He passed to a teammate in front who one-timed it- but Trouble, oh my god, Trouble.

He turned on his skates and flung himself headfirst across the net, a few inches off the ice, arms outstretched. With quite a bit of luck, the puck hit him in the arm. The unfortunate part is that when the puck hits a flying goalie's arm, it's next to impossible for him to trap it, and, if he does, it's all luck.

The puck fell right back to the forwards stick, and he shot it along the ice, right under Trouble, and the Haven defenders just couldn't get to it.

Trouble fell on his left side, hitting the ice hard, arms still outstretched as he rolled onto his stomach. He pulled his arms in slowly and gradually got to his feet. Trouble skated out to the boards, tapped them with his stick, and turned, skating back to his net along the goal line.

Markov won the face-off and passed the puck to Holly. Holly passed it through an elf's legs back to Markov, and they created a two-on-one with the other elfin defender.

Holly skated to the left side of the net with the puck, drawing Vishby to her. Seeing no gap to the net, she saucer-passed it just past him to Markov, who was checked hard just before the puck reached him. The Atlantis pixie's momentum carried him to the boards, where Jones gladly checked him. The pixie, whose jersey showed him to be named Lynch, dropped to the ice, unconscious.

As the Atlantis medical warlock came onto the ice to revive Lynch, a referee escorted Bob Jones off the ice. He pushed past Evergreen, standing just behind the Zamboni doors, and headed to the locker room. Jones would join his burly teammates in the third period.

The warlock healed Hayden Lynch **(A/N: That's the name of the NH governor's son. I've met him, but never his dad, and he actually plays hockey, too.)** and made him leave the ice, just in case. He'd be back in the third.

Not a thing of interest happened during Jones's five-minute game disqualification penalty, apart from…

With one minute left on the penalty, Holly Short, holding the puck behind her own net, was knocked off her feet. The gnome took the puck and passed to a pixie along the boards.

This pixie, too, was checked, and this time Iorek Rish came away with the puck. He passed to Lili Frond, who deeked by a thick (skull-wise and other-wise) gnome.

In on a break-away, Lili feinted right, then took a backhand shot from the other side, which, of course, Vishby couldn't get to, as he had completely gone for the fake. Lili's shot was high, though, and the puck clanged off the crossbar, hit the glass, and fell to the ice, where it was picked up by an elfin defender.

Halfway through the period, Lili got a chance to redeem herself. The puck was dumped into the Haven zone, and Lili picked it up. She passed up ice to Holly. Holly got checked, and Lili grabbed the free puck again.

Scrambling to get it out of the zone, Lili lifted the puck head-height down the ice, but that didn't work, either, as a forward reached up and used his hand to bat the puck down to the ice. Using his stick and feet, he controlled it and passed to a teammate. Holly intercepted the puck, and it shifted direction again.

At the end of a shift three minutes later, CSI hurtled over the boards and stood next to Holly.

"Trouble has a message for you," he reported.

"Oh really?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "And what might this message be?" She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the boards and watched Trouble as CSI answered.

"He says, and I quote, 'You're my slave- so go score a friggin' goal.'"

Holly laughed. "He said 'friggin''?"

"Yup."

Holly laughed again as she jumped over the boards onto the ice. She raced toward Trouble and stopped in front of him, spraying snow high into his face, though he was standing.

"Apparently I have no choice but to score a 'friggin'' goal," she said coldly, treating him to one of her best I'm-going-to-kill-you looks, but at the same time showing him she was kidding by smiling. Trouble was a little spooked, but laughed and pushed her toward the face-off, which she won. Holly backhanded the puck to Kip, who passed it to Lili, but she got check and the puck bounced along the ice. An Atlantis player took it and curled around, skating to his own blue line, where he would curl again and head back the other way. However, Vinyaya checked him and the three girls came in on a three-on-oh.

Now, in hockey, when you have your forward line alone with the opposing goalie, to not score is almost impossible. All you need to do is pass the puck.

Vinyaya passed to holly on her left and then skated up behind her. Holly passed to Lili, who skated over the blue line, and holly followed the pass, ending up behind Lili. Lili back to Vinyaya, follow the pass. The textbook weave.

Holly had the puck right in front of Vishby. She backhanded it to Vinyaya on her right, who passed through Vishby's legs to Lili. Vishby, who'd butterflied in an attempt to stop Vinyaya's pass, had no chance. Lili was buried under a pile of Haven black and red almost as soon as the puck left her stick.

After a few unremarkable minutes, Trouble looked at the clock. The puck was in the Atlantis end. There was just a minute and four seconds left. Four seconds later…

"One minute left to play in the period. One minute."

A chouse of 'thank you' from the audience. Trouble was bored. The puck hadn't been within five feet of him for about eight minutes now. He was talking to himself when the horn sounded, and he gladly left the ice, tucking his stick under his left arm and pulling off his cat-eye mask with his blocker. As soon as he got to the locker room, he dumped his things and again removed the top half of his equipment before joining in the locker room chatter. He vaguely noted that Jones and Evergreen had completely packed up their equipment, with their hockey bags stacked by the door and their sticks with everyone else's on the stick rack. Their jerseys were hanging in their lockers. The two boys were showered and ready to leave, but still in a pretty good mood. They congratulated the girls, and Evergreen kissed Lili on the cheek, earning a lot of eye rolling and a fit of giggles from Lili. Vinyaya was to hold for him to, it freaked him out to even think about it. Plus, she was his superior officer. Holly would punch him no matter her relationship status or rank, but especially now that that status was taken, and even though that rank was lower than his own.

When Root informed the team they had to get back on the ice, they dressed quickly and were followed by Evergreen and Jones, who slapped each player on the back as they walked by, skating out to 'Black Betty' (Ram Jam).

3-2, Haven. 20 minutes left to play. Winner takes all.


	21. The Third Period

**A/N: 1. I have absolutely none of the next chapter written. I'll work on that tonight, though.**

**2. I'd love to have this story finished before I go to hockey camp on the third, but I wouldn't count on it :(**

**3. Don't forget to review, guys and girls! If I don't get many reviews, I may not post the one-shot to end this series. And all of a sudden, AFCers haven't been reviewing! Come on, guys! (girls!)**

**4.The series is called _For Lack of a Better Name,_ just so you know.**

**5. All good reporters are named Jim!**

**6. Rink Diagram (you know the drill): http: / i95.photobucket .com/ albums/ 150/doglefox0601 /Hockey/RinkDiagram.jpg**

**Disclaimer: I own Jim, and all the badly named peoples. Eoin Colfer owns everyone else, except Hayden Lynch, who, I suppose, technically belongs to himself, and if not, then his parents, the governer of New Hampshire, and his wife.**

"Holly Short wins the face-off and dodges around Atlantis's Hayden Lynch. She's taken out at the blue line and the puck is rushed back u ice. Lynch gets the pass and darts left, heading to the corner. He's checked hard into the boards by Vinyaya."

"I gotta say, Jim, that looked- heck, _sounded_- like it hurt."

"I'll say. Hey, look at Trouble Kelp. Now doesn't he look bored?"

Trouble was standing with his arms up on the top of the net, his head back slightly, but he could still see the ice. He looked half-asleep.

"Why don't we play the interview with him from before the game."

On TV screens all over the Lower Elements, Trouble Kelp's face showed up in the top left-hand corner. His hair was spiked and he was wearing his then-clean haven hockey heresy over his warm-up suit. He was sitting in his locker, his gear spread out around him, though you couldn't really see it.

"Hey everybody. This is Captain Trouble Kelp of the Haven City LEP."

On the ice, Lynch was back on his feet- with the puck. Trouble snagged his shot and held on.

"My favorite food is a garden salad with fish, and my favorite drink is cream soda. I love feeling the wind in my face on a Recon or Retrieval mission. It's what I live for. Speaking of living, I live with my younger brother, Grub Kelp, in a one-bedroom apartment."

Holly, Vinyaya, and Lili were weaving again, this time with two defenders in front of them.

The picture of Trouble jumped slightly to later in the interview, and he was holding his goalie mask.

The mask had a black base, and cage was chrome, a cat-eye mask. The word, or name, 'Trouble' was written in red across the forehead. Flames licked at the Gnommish letters greedily, and all around the mask, fire danced.

The back plate featured a red '30' and 'Kelp,' on the left and right, respectively, and more flames. At the bottom were three stickers- a clover, a gold coin, and a small Neutrino handgun.

"The flames on my mask represent my greed," Trouble explained. "I want glory, I want money, I want, I want, I want. Then, coupled with my name, Trouble, on the front of the mask, I thought it was a fair description of me."

Atlantis rushed back up the ice, apparently unaware of the haven defense. Trouble managed to stop four shots, but Holly had to dive in and deflect one herself.

"The clover is for luck. The gold, fortune. And the Neutrino? The Neutrino shows my willingness to fight for what I believe in, no matter the consequences. If I go crazy because of things I've seen afterwards, I don't care. So long as I've served the People."

Though the interview continued, the video stopped there. "The full version of this interview will be available online in about ten minutes," reported Jim to the TV audience.

The score was still 3-2. Trouble breathed deeply, relishing the cool air and calming himself.

Newt, Unknown, Pop-Tart, and Kip came racing back into the zone, trying to kill of a slashing penalty on Iorek Rish. Trouble squared up to the puck, minimizing the angle between it and the net. The pixie with the puck shoved past Pop-Tart and released a shot on goal. An easy stop. Or it should have been. Trouble, jittery with nerves, completely missed the puck.

Tie game.

Rish stepped out of the penalty box as Trouble fished the puck out of the net and pushed it across the ice to a ref with his stick. The ref picked it up and skated to center ice, handed the puck off to another ref there, and backed off to the boards.

Before the puck even hit the ice, Holly whacked at it, sending it behind her. CSI got control of it and passed to Markov. Each player held the puck only long enough to settle it, if they didn't just one-touch it to someone else.

The Atlantis team had never been one for one-touch passes, so they never practiced them. The result? They couldn't defend them.

Holly passed to CSI at the blue line, who had his stick raised to his waist, ready. Just when the puck got to him, CSI brought his stick down. The little rubber disk flew through the air, parallel to the ice surface and rotating smoothly. None of the defenders stepped in front of it- the puck hit the top of the net from the inside, knocking Vishby's water bottle off the net.

CSI's teammates were on him like flies.

The face-off was held at center ice, as always after goals. Lynch won it and dodged around Holly, went straight trough Kip and CSI, and wristed a shot at the gap between Trouble's legs- the five hole. Trouble dropped into his butterfly, but the puck was deflected straight back to Lynch, who slammed it home.

Tie game. Again.

"Well, that was easy enough for him," Holly said to Markov, the two vaulting over the boards a few minutes later. "We just handed him a goal."

"Yeah. At least Trouble tried but the rest of us just kinda let the guy waltz in. Jonesy'll be really pissed."

"Why?" Holly looked at him questioningly before looking to her right, in the direction of Evergreen and Jones, but she couldn't see them over the fans.

"Hayden Lynch is the one he hit last period, and the one who scored a minute ago," Markov explained.

"Oh, I didn't notice. But you're right, Jonesy is definitely pissed off. I wish I could see his face.

"Actually, that's not that unusual. He's a bit like Root," Holly said, dropping her voice for the last sentence. "I said hi to Evergreen when I walked in today, and Bob was reading. He flipped out at me."

The pair turned their attention back to the ice, laughing, just in time to see Trouble slide back into the net after diving to break up a pass.

Vinyaya picked up the puck and passed to Rish, who one-touched it to pop-Tart. Pop was slammed into the boards and stripped of the puck at center ice. A pixie carried it back the other way.

CSI went towards him, but the pixie ducked low and scooted away as the elf tried to check him into the boards. Instead, CSI hit the boards, rattling the glass. He fell and watched the play, propped up on his elbows. There was nothing he could do as the pixie wound up to take a slap shot, but CSI scrambled to his skates as Kip dove, knocking the puck towards him.

All of a sudden, the defensemen CSI was in alone with the goalie Vishby. He drew Vishby to the right post before quickly bringing the puck back the other way, but Vishby slipped, and the net was wide open, with Vishby on his back by the right post.

CSI calmed down and took a shot. He was aiming to hit the water bottle again. Easy shot.

But suddenly, somehow, the paddle of Vishby's stick was there, and the puck fell into the crease, to be cleared out by an Atlantis player. Vishby scrambled onto his stomach, to his feet as Holly raced down the ice next to CSI. She glanced at the clock above Trouble and gritted her teeth, digging her skates into the ice that much harder.

The Atlantis forward's shot was blocked, and there was a scramble in front of the net. The puck eventually found it's way to the point, but the mass of players didn't leave. The next shot hit Trouble's blocker- and went straight up. An Atlantis player swung his stick at it, barely waiting for it to drop past his head to avoid a high-sticking call, and slammed it into the net, just over Trouble's shoulder. Atlantis up, 4-3.

The puck was dropped at center ice, but Holly only had time to pass it back to CSI before the horn sounded.

The game was over.

Haven had lost.

Trouble Kelp didn't pick his head up until the horn sounded, and tried to concentrate on his teammates converging on him instead of the Atlantis players throwing their sticks, gloves, and helmets into the air in celebration.

His teammates patted him on the back and the head. The girls hugged everyone. Tears streamed down each and every player's cheeks. Not a word was spoken. **(A/N: The church bells all were broken…)** They'd come so close.

Trouble stood at center ice as the Atlantis team collected themselves and lined up behind Vishby, euphoric. Trouble tucked his stick and blocker under his left arm and shook each players hand, muttering 'good game.' The Atlantis players tried to cheer them up, get in a word to players personally, but no one was listening, and they gave up.

Trouble shook hands with the Atlantis coach, a major he'd gone to Academy with, before the guy had moved to Atlantis. Trouble only nodded at him, and the major didn't say anything.

The teams peeled away, Atlantis posing for pictures. Haven, quite obviously, wasn't in the mood, and declined when several reports asked for a team picture.

Trouble picked up the puck in his catcher and flipped it over the glass into the stands, then skated off the ice, ignoring the fans leaning over the cement barrier looking for high-fives.

Holly followed Trouble closely, but didn't say a word. When they got to the locker room, Trouble chucked his goalie stick at his locker. It remained intact, and fortunately, though he also threw his gloves, he was sitting when he removed his helmet. It slipped through his sweaty fingers onto hockey bag. He leaned back against the back of his locker, tears streaming down his face. The rest of the team was silent, quietly putting their equipment away. Even Root didn't say anything when he came in, just sat on the couch, staring at the TV.

Eventually Trouble took off his equipment and went into the showers. When he came out, he still wasn't smiling, but he wasn't crying, either. He was surprised to notice Holly zipping up his bag- she packed it while he was showering. She'd even buckled his pads together and tucked all the straps out of the way, so they could easily be thrown over his shoulder.

"Thanks," he whispered. The first word any of them had said since they'd said 'good game.' He pulled Holly into a hug, the two of them kneeling on the rubber.

Everyone's gear was packed up and their jerseys were in the wash. Their sticks, courtesy of Grub, had been placed neatly on the stick rack. The bags were stacked just as neatly on the other side of the door.

Commander Root stood up from the couch. Everyone looked up.

"Foaly's hosting a party in the event room here. The first five hundred fans to get there, you guys, and the other seven Haven players- including me. It's 11 AM right now- the party could last all night. The fans are going to be looking for you guys to give autographs and take pictures, maybe even give speeches. Try to avoid reporters, please, but hopefully Foaly has weeded them out. He tells me he's scanning everyone pretty extensively to avoid something like the soccer match incident.

"Foaly also assures me that there will be food for you guys, and a table separated from the rest so you aren't signing autographs while you eat. Got it?"

Most of the team just stood up in answer. Trouble slipped into his warm-up jacket on and put his beanie on his wet hair, before following Root out the door, his arm around Holly's shoulders.

**A/N: Now go to my profile (FFers, top of the page, AFCers, link is in the summary) and vote for MVP! NOW!!**


	22. Interviews Suck

**A/N: This (really retarded) story is almost done. Only a few more chapters. I only got a whopping total of two votes, but hey, too bad. That poll is closed, so I can write the banquet, maybe another chapter after that, and then _For Lack of a Better Name._**

**Disclaimer: The characters of this chapter all belong to Mr. Eoin Colfer, except Jones, mentioned in passing (literally).**

Trouble was sitting at one of the many tables in the event room, signing autographs. Holly sat next to him, noting that with each signature he seemed to get a little happier.

The rest of the team sat at other tables, and they fans more or less walked in a line to get everyone's, then headed outside to go home. It was about three in the morning.

The line was probably a good fifty fairies long when an elf about Trouble's own age came up and laid a Kelp t-shirt on the table in front of him. Trouble smiled at her and signed the black t-shirt, handing the silver marker to Holly. The elf leaned over the table to whisper something in holly's ear. Signing a picture of himself taken that day- well, the night before, Trouble thought he heard the words 'you're so lucky,' but he wasn't sure.

Trouble signed one last autograph, and as he handed the young pixie her paper, Root came up behind him.

"Tomorrow, the banquet is at six. The secretaries at Police Plaza have been getting calls all day about interviews with the players. Do you want me to set you up for any?"

"Uh, sure… I guess…" Holly said.

"That a yes or a no, Holls?" Trouble laughed.

"Yes."

Root nodded and walked away, toward a cluster of people with notepads and cameras just outside the doors.

In Sunday's newspaper, there was an article about Holly Short and Trouble Kelp, underneath a picture of the two at the soccer game, right after they kissed. There was a short blurb about each, and then the interview, which may have been shorter.

**Why did you two want to play Mud Men sports?**

Holly Short: I dunno. It sounded like fun.

Trouble Kelp: (laughing) That's exactly what I was going to say.

**Will you play again next year?**

HS: Yes.

TK: Yeah.

**Trouble; there are rumors about your father. Is it true that he is Commander Root?**

TK: Yes.

**Holly; does it feel weird to date you boss's son?**

HS: No, but it sounds weird, I'll give you that.

**Trouble; you played a big part in Haven's loss last night. Does it make you mad?**

TK:

Okay… Holly; you gave Haven their first ever lead in Mud Men Sports Week- which desperately needs a new name- how does that feel?

HS: Yes, we've tried to get the Council to rename it, or get rid of it, but they keep saying 'keep it simple, not everyone is as smart as Foaly,' or some such thing. Quite odd. But anyway, I've got one word for you concerning your question: amazing.

**What are your plans for the future?**

HS: I'm not sure. I'd like to stick with the LEP, I know that much, but outside of work… I don't know.

TK: Not sure.

**Well, then, I can't really branch any questions from your answers, now, can I?**

HS: (laughing) No, I guess you can't.

* * *

Trouble woke up in an unpleasant fashion Saturday morning- he rolled off his bed and landed on his combat boots.

"Ouch," he muttered, face planted in the carpet.

Trouble rolled off his boots and onto his back, propping himself up on his elbows before slowly climbing to his feet, rubbing his stomach. Holly was sitting up on the bed, looking at him. She was trying hard not to laugh.

Trouble looked at the clock- six in the morning. He sat on the edge of the bed and flipped his legs up, pulling the blanket over himself and Holly. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly, pulling away when she tried to deepen the kiss. Trouble chuckled.

"Really Holly. It's six in the morning and you're trying to make out with me."

Holly grinned sleepily. "Perhaps."

Trouble laughed lightly and pulled Holly down next to him on the bed, dragging the blanket up higher. Holly laid her forehead against Trouble's bare chest and sighed contentedly.

It was almost noon when Holly woke up again. She carefully extracted herself from Trouble's grip and peered over him, checking the time.

"D'Arvit," she swore, shaking Trouble awake.

"What?" Trouble moaned, groggy with sleep.

"Trub, it's noon. We really have to go."

"D'Arvit!" Trouble jumped out of the bed and quickly got dressed. The two had three different interviews before the players banquet, as did many other players. Root himself had five. But three was the least Root could schedule for _any_ of them, though he'd tried for one for _all _of them.

The two quickly grabbed some peanut butter, bread, and a plastic knife. They made and ate their sticky sandwiches on the way to Police Plaza. They earned quite a few odd looks, and even a few autograph requests, but they ignored everyone they passed and made for interrogation room eight. They passed by Evergreen and Jones in the hallway.

"Interviews suck," Evergreen said as he passed. Trouble nodded. Evergreen wasn't the only one who hated interviews with a burning passion.

Trouble and Holly entered the interrogation room and saw their interviewer was already there. He got to his feet to shake hands.

"Pleasure to meet you both. Now, before we begin, may I please have you autographs?"

Trouble groaned. It was going to be a long day.


	23. Chapter Unnamed

**A/N: The last full chapter of this story- the epilogue is very short. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and on FF, I'd like to thank Holly25Trouble espically. On AFC, well, I love you all! I'm sorry I have no specific names- there are too many of you!**

**In mere minutes, this series will be complete. It may be already.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Trouble, Holly, etc. They belong to Eoin Colfer.**

Trouble looked in his closet and pulled out a suit, grabbing a tie off the wall. _Stupid formalities_, he thought. _They just want to watch us fidget the whole time- they think it's funny!_

He quickly threw on the suit, almost choked himself with the tie, and yanked on his shoes, his mood never improving.

Holly was at her apartment, her frame of mind no better. Fern Green, Lili, and Vinyaya would be wearing skirts, but no one had said she couldn't wear pants and a shirt. Nice pants and a fancy shirt.

Holly ended up in plain black pants, tighter than she liked, an aqua top, and some nice black shoes- she didn't have much. The Council would probably yell at her for it, but she threw on a silver necklace Trouble had given her as a joke for her birthday the year before- it was a cartouche, with Egyptian symbols spelling out 'Holls.' Of course, that was on purpose. On the way out the door, Holly grabbed a charm bracelet her mom had given her. It was normally the only jewelry she wore, though never to work, so she still didn't wear it much.

Holly walked out of her apartment, very uncomfortable. All the players would be heading to the same room they'd been in the previous night, and most would probably be as uncomfortable as Holly and Trouble.

Holly walked around Police Plaza, entered the sports complex, and went straight for the event room. There were three tables in a row, with a slightly raised platform at the head. On the platform, a podium, and on the podium, a microphone. Nothing important on the microphone, sorry. Closer to the door were smaller, round tables, for the civilians with enough cash to get it, some off-duty LEP officers, and relatives of the players. And at the doors, and around the hall, were the armed LEP officers. Just in case.

Holly walked over to the table on the right and sat next to Trouble. He kissed her on the cheek.

"You look beautiful, Holls," Trouble whispered in her ear, fingering the necklace.

Holly shoved him away playfully, then helped herself to some cheese and crackers. Trouble looked offended, and was about to comment, when something- or rather, some_one_- caught his eye.

Bloodroot. The elf was glaring at Trouble, slumped in his seat, arms crossed, from the Atlantis table. Trouble looked confused.

"What's with him?" Holly asked.

"I haven't a clue…" Trouble muttered.

Eventually, the major Trouble had gone to the Academy with came over and whispered something in Trouble's ear. A smile spread across Trouble's face. As the major walked away, Trouble smirked at Bloodroot.

"What'd he say?" Holly asked, puzzled.

"To quote him exactly… 'Please, Trouble, ignore Zach. He's jealous. The guy's had a crush on Holly ever since he first saw her two years ago.'"

Holly laughed and looked at Bloodroot. He smiled slightly and unfolded his arms to wave slightly. Holly rolled her eyes.

Just then, a set of caterers brought out salads and lobsters. Talk was scarce while the ravenous police officers dug in.

When most were finishing up their dinners, Chairman Lope stepped up to the podium.

"Hello," Lope said, looking out over the small audience, and into several cameras.

"As you all know, we have just completed the most epic Sports Week yet.

"Basketball on Monday night went to Atlantis, 40-42.

"Soccer, after an illegal act that delayed the game for quite some time, went to Haven, the score 2-1.

"Wednesday night was lacrosse, and thanks to Captain Holly Short, Haven won, 7-6."

There were cheers from Haven, and Trouble kissed Holly's cheek again.

"Despite an early lead on the diamond Thursday night, Haven lost a close game of baseball, and Atlantis tied the series with a 12-11 win.

"On Friday night, the noise in this building was deafening. Haven had never come closer to winning. But, with two of their players thrown out of the game, they just couldn't pull it off.

"On behalf of the entire Council, save perhaps the Wing Commander" –everyone laughed, and Vinyaya nodded, smiling- "I'd like to congratulate the Atlantis athletes for winning their fourth straight Mud Men Sports Week title."

Some people cheered, but most just clapped politely. Lope waited for it to quiet down before he called each players name, then quickly said which teams they were on. He shook each player's hand before slipping a medal around his neck.

"Next, I'd like to congratulate the Haven athletes for a close-fought battle. Maybe next year, Haven."

More applause this time, then Lope called the names alphabetically by last name. Each player got a silver medal with their name and number engraved on the back, below their rank.

"Lieutenant Briar Cudgeon. Soccer.

"Private Trevor Cypress. Soccer, lacrosse.

"Major Nick Evergreen. Basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey.

"Corporal Lili Frond. Baseball, hockey.

"Corporal Fern Green. Baseball.

"Captain Spike Ivy. Lacrosse, baseball, hockey.

"Corporal Robert Jones. Basketball, soccer, lacrosse, hockey.

"Corporal Grub Kelp. Basketball, lacrosse.

"Captain Trouble Kelp. Basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, hockey.

"Lieutenant Tyson Kip. Lacrosse, baseball, hockey.

"Captain Donovan Markov. Lacrosse, hockey.

"Corporal Brett Newt. Soccer, baseball, hockey.

"Captain George Oak. Basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey.

"Major Iorek Rish. Soccer, hockey.

"Commander Julius Root. Baseball."

"Captain Unknown Scott. Basketball, soccer, hockey.

"Captain Holly Short. Basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, hockey.

"Captain Ash Vein. Basketball, soccer, lacrosse, baseball.

"Private Chix Verbil. Basketball, lacrosse, baseball, hockey.

"And last but not least, Wing Commander Vinyaya. Basketball, lacrosse, baseball, hockey."

When Vinyaya sat down again, Lope started into the few other awards. Hayden Lynch got Atlantis MVP. Vishby got good sportsmanship, and Bloodroot got most dedicated.

"Three more awards, two speeches, and then you can all go home."

"Haven's most dedicated player… congratulations Major Nick Evergreen."

Evergreen stepped up to the platform to shake Lope's hand and receive his brass knuckles- engraved with his name, rank, and number, and the year.

"Now, Haven's good sportsmanship award was pretty easy. Only two people on the team didn't try to rip out someone's throat this week. Okay, so Trouble Kelp didn't either, but he did punch Vishby on Wednesday, and we all know he would have fought last night if he could have."

Trouble smiled sheepishly as his teammates and co-workers laughed.

"So, Haven's good sportsmanship award goes to Wing Commander Vinyaya."

Vinyaya's award was the same as Vishby's- this year, a white t-shirt that read 'I wouldn't hurt a fly' under a picture of a squashed fly. The shirt was folded so that only the words and picture was visible, and put in a case so as to be hung on a wall. Of course, the name, rank, and number of the winner, along with the year, was engraved on the gold plate at the bottom of the case.

"The public vote for Haven's MVP coincided with the Council's pick. Congratulations… Trouble Kelp."

Trouble stood, grinning proudly, and walked up to Lope. As always, the MVP got a ring. A red stone for Haven, green for Atlantis, set into a band of gold. The letters MVP were carved on one side, and the year on the other. The name, rank, and number were on the inside.

Trouble slipped the ring on and went back to his seat, dreading the next part. The captain's speeches.

Trouble fought sleep throughout Bloodroot's speech, and didn't hear a word of it. At the end, he clapped politely. Now it was his turn. Yippee.

The elf got up slowly and awkwardly after Lope introduced him, and walked up to the podium. He unfolded a piece of paper from his pocket and put it on the podium, just in case.

"This year has been a lot of fun, and hard work. The Council had us training so much, so hard, that we were puking more or less every night, and while going on a mission was normally the best thing that could happen, each mission this past year was heaven, if it meant we didn't have to practice.

"But the harsh schedule showed us just how much we wanted to win. We never gave up. Once we beat you guys, Atlantis, I'm out. I'll throw my gear in a closet and never touch it again. It won't be giving up, not if we win.

"There are a lot of people who gave us this chance. Who gave _me_ this chance. First, whoever was stupid enough to come up with the idea of playing Mud Men sports."

Trouble was joking, and even Cahartez, whose idea it had been, laughed.

"All my co-workers at Police Plaza, who practically forced me to try out."

Evergreen stood up, raising his hand, smiling.

Trouble laughed. "Yes, Nick, I meant you.

"And finally, the man who is the reason I'm even here at all. Literally. My father, Commander Julius Root."

Cue stunned silence. Root looked at his lap, not making eye contact with any of the people looking at him- which was everyone.

"Thank you Cahartez, Nick, and the rest of you goons. Thanks, Dad."

Trouble took the paper, glad he hadn't needed it, and slid it back into his pocket. On his way back to his seat between Holly and Nick, Trouble stopped and hugged his dad. The commander gently patted him on the back, but didn't look up.

After a (not so) quick good-bye from Lope, people slowly started filing out of the hall. The LEP officers converged in the lobby, but when Holly saw Bloodroot walking toward them, she tugged on Trouble's sleeve, then gestured toward Bloodroot. Trouble nodded, and they said good-bye to their small group, heading out the door.

Within 15 minutes, the pair was in normal clothes, and Trouble was en route to Holly's apartment.

Holly heard a knock on her door and waited a moment before answering. No need for Trouble to know she'd been standing by the front door for five minutes, waiting for him.

Trouble walked into the apartment and wrapped Holly up in his arms, closing the door with his foot. Holly stood with her head on his shoulder, listening to his even breaths, her arms around his waist. They were comfortable enough to stand there in silence for about two minutes, before Holly's phone rang.

Holly pressed her lips to Trouble's throat, then grabbed his hand and picked up her phone from the kitchen table.

"Hey Foaly. What'd you want?" Holly said. Despite the words, her tone was friendly enough. Trouble chuckled.

"Hi Holly. Was that Trouble I just heard?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, um… well, I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" Foaly sounded scared. Scared of the images in his head, most likely.

Holly laughed. "Actually… you interrupted-"

But Foaly had hung up at 'actually.'

Trouble looked at her. "Foaly thinks we're 'doing things,' doesn't he?"

"Yup."

"Well, then, no doubt Foaly won't let anyone call until tomorrow morning." Trouble smirked, picked up a resisting Holly, and carried the objecting (to being carried, that is) elf to the bedroom.


	24. Epilogue

**A/N: 185 words. Wow...**

**Disclaimer: Trouble, Holly, and Major Evergreen belong to Eoin Colfer, though the idea that Evergreen's name is Nick was my idea.**

It was almost ten o'clock, but in Atlantis, not a single soul was in the streets. Even the gang members were inside.

Trouble stood in net, waiting. The crowd was silent. Dead silent. Skates cut the ice, the sound much louder than most would think possible.

An elf raced towards Trouble. He glanced at the clock quickly.

3… 2… 1…

Cue horn.

Cue screams.

Cue pig pile.

An elf slammed into Trouble with an enormous force, but it wasn't the same on who'd been in front of him half a second before. He was by his own bench, lamenting the loss. This elf had an auburn crew cut and big hazel eyes. The next elf to join them, a burly defenseman, knocked them right over, and anyone with a black and red jersey was piled on top of Trouble Kelp.

Major Nick Evergreen had scored the winning goal. Haven's MVP with the only goal of the game.

That Sunday, it was determined that Mud Men sports would no longer be played in the Lower Elements.

Haven couldn't field a team.


End file.
